


Creatures and a Crook

by Kitty514



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - Zombies, Angst, Homophobia, M/M, Minor Character Death, Murder, Slow Burn, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-08-11 01:18:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 34,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16465946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kitty514/pseuds/Kitty514
Summary: After Billy accidentally kills his dad, he gets thrust into a new world full of the people he wants to stay away from, including a bunch of kids and one Steve Harrington. Factor in that things that should be dead aren’t staying dead, and Billy finds himself struggling just to stay above water.a.k.a. a Harringrove zombie au





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I just want to put up a warning that this fic is going to deal with heavy/dark stuff (including murder, violence, etc.) starting from the first chapter. I'll try my best to keep up with the tags as needed, but if I miss anything please feel free to let me know and I'll gladly add a warning/tag.
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading!

Billy couldn’t have told anyone exactly how it had started. All he remembered was his dad coming home late at night, drunk. A flurry of words were thrown Billy’s way before the first hit landed. He’d learned not to respond back, to just roll with the punches until his dad grew tired and left him alone. It’s not like Max or Susan was there to defend him, anyway.

Billy had stumbled out the open back door, into the cold night air. It bit almost as hard as his dad’s fist. His dad had taken hold of the front of Billy’s shirt and shoved him down the steps. Billy’s head knocked against the hard ground as he fell, and for a long, terrifying moment he couldn’t see or hear anything. Everything was a big blur, so far out of his grasp. 

When the ringing in his ears stopped, he could hear his dad yelling. Billy tried to sit up, but he was knocked back down when a fist connected with his jaw. He curled up into a ball instead, trying to shield himself from the brunt of the punches connecting with his body. 

After what felt like hours but was probably only a minute, the punches stopped coming. The entire right side of Billy’s body felt like it was burning. He removed his hands from his face and looked around. His dad was gone but he could hear his voice coming from around the side of the house. Another voice joined in, sounding like one of his neighbor’s. 

Billy struggled to stand up, his body protesting against him. He wanted to scream so badly. He wanted it to stop. He wanted his dad to just _stop_. 

The dark outline of the shovel lying unused next to the shed seemed to be calling to him. _One hit,_ it said. _One hit to show him that you aren’t a fucking pussy_. 

Billy stumbled over to the shed and grabbed the shovel. He lifted it up, weighing it in his hands. 

“What are you doing?” his dad said from behind him. “Put that fucking thing down. I had to tell Frank from next door that nothing was wrong after all the noise you were making. I shouldn’t have to apologize for you.” 

Billy glanced over his shoulder. He could see the disapproving look on his dad’s face in the light pouring out of the back door. It almost made him put the shovel down. Yet something else seemed to grip him, urging him to retaliate. 

Billy spun around, bringing the shovel up over his shoulder as he did. He didn’t think, just swung the shovel at his dad’s head as hard as he could. 

There was a strange crunching noise as the shovel connected. His dad’s head snapped to the side, following the momentum of the shovel. He stayed standing for a second. He stared, unseeing, at Billy, and Billy was sure his dad would lunge at him. But then his whole body collapsed onto the ground, unmoving. 

Billy held the shovel up, waiting for his dad to get back up, but he didn’t. It looked like part of his dad’s skull had collapsed in on itself, and blood was spreading out of the gash on his temple. Billy stood over his dad for a long time, the shovel still raised into the air. 

Eventually, his grip on the shovel loosened. It hit him on the shoulder as it fell from his hands. He ignored the pain as he fell to his knees and frantically felt for a pulse in his dad’s neck. Nothing. He couldn’t find any sign of a heartbeat. He grabbed one wrist then the other, searching for any pulse at all. Nothing. 

There was a high-pitched whimpering noise. It took Billy a moment to realize it was coming from his own mouth. He gave his dad a shake, hoping maybe that would wake him up. But it was hopeless. 

Billy stood up, numb to his core. He spun around, expecting someone to be standing just out of sight, witness to what Billy had done. He started to pace back-and-forth, hands on his head. He couldn’t call the cops. They wouldn’t believe that Billy was trying to defend himself. No, they would take one look at his dad and lock him up. 

Billy stopped pacing. He clenched and unclenched his hands as he debated what to do. Almost on instinct, he grabbed both of his dad’s ankles and started to drag him back into the woods behind the house. He didn’t care that he could barely see where he was going or what could be out here. He didn’t know how far in he went before he came across a shallow ravine, almost falling into it when his foot slipped down the side. He righted himself, took one look at it, and then rolled his dad over the side. 

Billy shut his eyes as his dad rolled to a stop at the bottom, covered in mud. When he opened his eyes, he just saw a limp, bloody body. This wasn’t his dad anymore. It was a corpse. 

With legs shaking, Billy stumbled away. He found his way back to the house, where he picked up the shovel, which had blood and a clump of hair on it. Billy’s stomach clenched painfully, and he doubled over as he tried not to throw up. Eventually, sweat starting to overwhelm him, he straightened up and made his way back to the ravine. He carefully slid down, landing a few feet away from his dad’s body. Then he started to dig. 

By the time Billy stopped digging, the sun was starting to rise through the dense line of trees surrounding him. His entire body ached, and his arms felt like they’d been doused in gasoline and lit on fire. 

But he finally had a hole big enough. He threw the shovel down and went over to his dad’s body. He grabbed the body’s arms and dragged it over to the hole. He struggled for a second before being able to get the body in. It landed face-down in the hole. Billy stared down at it for a long moment, then picked the shovel back up and started to fill the hole with dirt. 

When he was done, he sat down heavily. He was in pain and tired and covered in mud and dirt and sweat. And he had killed his dad. 

Billy let out a loud sob and buried his face in his hands. He ran his hands up into his hair and pulled at it, telling himself not to cry. He had to get up, go home, and pretend like nothing was wrong. 

It took Billy a good ten minutes to get himself to stand up, but he did it. He took the shovel with him, using it to keep himself upright as he climbed out of the ravine slowly, then walked back to the house. Susan’s car still wasn’t here. She’d gone to her sister’s for the weekend with Max, but was supposed to get back today. 

Billy shoved the shovel as far into the shed as he could and covered it with a plastic container lid. He went inside and took a shower until the hot water ran out. It felt like there was dirt lodged under his skin that he’d never be able to get out. He scrubbed so hard at his skin that it turned red. Even then, he didn’t feel completely clean. Eventually, he had to give in and turn the water off. 

Slowly, painfully, Billy got a t-shirt and sweatpants on, then climbed into his bed. He curled up on his side and stared at the wall. He thought he should be feeling something—panicked, angry, anything—but it was like his brain had stopped functioning properly. 

Billy wrapped his arms around himself and shut his eyes. He couldn’t stop replaying the moment when the shovel had connected with his dad’s head in his mind. He buried his face into his pillow even though it hurt like hell and tried not to think of anything at all. 

The slamming of the front door and Max’s excited voice pulled Billy out of his daze. He opened his eyes and turned over, blearily checking the watch on his nightstand. It was noon, but Billy had no idea when he’d gotten back to the house. 

The door to his room creaked open and Susan poked her head in. The smile on her face disappeared when she saw Billy. Billy thought it was probably because he looked like he’d recently been beaten up, which he had. 

“Is Neil home?” Susan asked carefully. 

Billy felt his stomach drop. He hadn’t thought about how he’d explain Neil’s disappearance. He just shook his head instead of responding. 

Susan eased the door all the way open and sat down on the edge of Billy’s bed. Billy sat up slowly, his arms shaking with the effort of keeping himself propped up. She reached out slowly, as if reaching for a feral animal. When Billy didn’t pull back from her, she gently ran her fingers over Billy’s face. He winced when she pressed a little too hard on his cheek, and she pulled her hand back. 

“Sorry,” she said. The way she said it made Billy think she was sorry about more than just making him wince. 

“It’s okay,” Billy whispered. “I’m used to it.” 

Susan’s expression suddenly turned fierce. Billy almost flinched at that, not sure if it was meant to be directed at him or not. The angry expression on her face became a bit more controlled when Max strolled in. 

“Hey,” Max said. “Where’s Neil?” 

“Don’t know,” Billy said, hoping he was being a convincing liar. 

“His car is outside.” 

“Maybe he walked to the store.” Billy laid back down as Susan stood up and left the room. His stomach was churning, sure that Max would see right through him. She could be one perceptive motherfucker at times. 

Max shut the door and climbed up onto Billy’s bed. She’d grown bolder around him ever since the incident at the Byers’ house, though Billy didn’t like to think about that. She took hold of his wrist and lifted his arm up into the air before letting go of it. Billy let it drop back down to the bed. 

“I hope he doesn’t come back,” Max said, suddenly looking much older than her age. 

“Why?” Billy asked, feeling his stomach clench even harder. Did she suspect something? “He’s never done anything to you.” 

“He makes mom sad. But she won’t leave him. That’s why I hope he leaves her.” 

Billy made a noncommittal noise. 

Max laid down next to Billy. “What happened to your mom?” 

Billy glanced over at her, thrown by her bluntness. “Why do you care?” 

Max shrugged. “Just curious. And you seem like you might answer now, since you’re, you know, not all worked up like you usually are.” 

Billy rolled his eyes, but answered her question anyway. “She left. She saw what my dad was becoming and decided she didn’t want that, so one night, when my dad was working late, she packed up all her stuff and disappeared.” 

“She didn’t take you with her?” 

Billy took a deep breath. “No. I don’t know why. I guess she didn’t love me enough.” 

“Oh.” 

“Yeah.” 

Max was silent for a second, then she sat up and gave Billy’s arm a small shove. “You’re making me sad. Cheer up a little.” 

Billy swatted at her ineffectively. “Fuck off.” 

“Yeah, whatever,” Max replied, standing up from the bed. “You want something to eat? I can get mom to make you a sandwich.” 

Billy knew she was extending an olive branch, no matter that it was tiny. “No, I’m not hungry. But thanks.” 

Max nodded, then left the room. When the door shut behind her, Billy curled back up on his side and tried to go to sleep again. It didn’t help that all he could see when he closed his eyes was his dad’s body lying face-down in a hole. 


	2. Chapter 2

Going to school on Monday was hell. Billy’s entire body was sore; he couldn’t move without some part of him hurting. He had to pretend like everything was normal, though, not just because he didn’t want anyone to know what had happened, but because he thought he might break down if he didn’t.

Susan had been concerned that Neil hadn’t shown up at the house in two days. Billy didn’t know what to tell her, so he’d kept his mouth shut. He had a feeling that she’d be calling the cops soon to report him missing, especially since his car and his wallet were still at the house. 

Billy should have been figuring out his story to get it straight, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it yet. Instead, Billy wandered down the halls of Hawkins High, sporting a battered face and what he hoped was an expression that told everyone to leave him alone. Most people believed he liked to get into fights with strangers on the weekends, and Billy was happy to let them believe that. 

He powered through the day as best as he could. When it came to basketball practice, though, he knew he wouldn’t be able to get through it. He asked Coach if could go home early, but he told Billy to get dressed and take notes from the sidelines so he wouldn’t fall behind on anything. 

It wasn’t what Billy wanted to do, but it was better than being forced onto the court. He made sure he was the last one into the locker room and took his time undressing. He waited for everyone to leave before he finally took his shirt off. He gritted his teeth against the pain as he put his regular basketball t-shirt on. 

“What happened to you?” 

Billy jumped at the voice. He turned to see Steve Harrington, of all people, standing at the end of the lockers, giving Billy a cautious look before he pulled on his own shirt, messing up that perfect hair of his. Billy was slightly surprised that the guy would even want to talk to him. Steve’s face had fully healed about a week ago, but Billy could almost convince himself that there were still bruises there. 

“What do you mean?” Billy asked as nonchalantly as he could, hoping Steve would drop the subject. 

“It looks like someone threw you down the side of a cliff. No offense.” 

“Don’t know why you even care,” Billy retorted. He started to walk away, but only made it a few steps before his body forced him to sit down on the bench nearby. He hunched over, breathing as slowly as he could so that he wouldn’t cry at how tired and sore he was. He refused to cry in front of Steve. 

Billy heard Steve moving, then the locker room door opening. He glanced up to see Steve studying him briefly with keen eyes before leaving the room. Billy watched as the door slammed closed, flinching at the sound. 

Fuck this. He just wanted to go home and sleep and not think about Steve or his dad or anyone else. He wanted to forget anything had ever happened these last few weeks. 

Billy stood up and gathered his things, then left through the door that led outside rather than into the gym. He walked to the parking lot, stuffed everything including himself into the car, and drove away. He was gripping the steering wheel so hard he thought he might break it. 

When he got back home, he had to park on the street since there was a cop car in his driveway. Billy sat in his car for a few minutes as he stared at the cop car, dread crawling down his spine like icy water as he tried to steel himself for what was to come. He should’ve worked out his story long before now. There wasn’t anything he could do, though. Except maybe get the fuck out of this town. But that was akin to admitting his guilt in this whole shit-show. 

Eventually, Billy got out of the car. He went up to the house slowly and went inside, immediately spotting a policeman sitting at the kitchen table with Susan. They both looked up at him when he stepped into the kitchen, making him feel like he had a light trained on him in an interrogation room. 

“I thought you had basketball practice until four,” Susan said, her eyes slightly red. She must’ve been crying. That didn’t make Billy feel any better. 

“I do, but I left early because I wasn’t feeling good,” Billy replied. He turned his attention to the cop. “Are you here about my dad?” 

The cop nodded. “Your mom is filing a missing persons report.” He turned to Susan. “Mrs. Hargrove, do you mind if I ask your son a few questions?” 

Susan glanced at Billy, then shook her head. “No, go ahead. I’ll be in my room if you need me.” She stood up and wandered off. 

Billy sat down at the table. 

“You’ve got some nasty bruises there,” the cop said, eyeing Billy’s face. “Mind telling me how you got them?” 

Billy tilted his chin up, trying to angle his face away from the man. “Got in a fight. Nothing special.” 

“Who’d you get in a fight with?” 

“Does it matter?” 

“In this case, yes.” 

When Billy didn’t respond, the cop sighed and tried a different approach. “Alright,” he said, “can you tell me the last time you saw your dad?” 

“Saturday night,” Billy responded as casually as he could. His mind was already racing trying to come up with a plausible story. “He came home after work, and he seemed drunk, so I locked myself in my room for the night. That was the last time I saw him.” 

“What’s your dad like when he’s drunk?” the cop asked as he jotted down what Billy had said. 

Billy hesitated, torn between telling the truth and wanting to keep as quiet as possible. In the end, he told some fashion of the truth. “He gets mean. He likes to yell a lot. I try to avoid him when he’s like that.” 

The cop nodded. “Where do you think he could’ve gone in a state like that?” 

Billy shrugged. “To a bar? Maybe he wanted to drink more.” 

“So you think he went to a bar without his wallet?” 

“Listen, man, I don’t know what he was thinking then,” Billy spit out. “All I know is that he left without so much as a note saying where he went, and now--” He broke off as his voice cracked. He took a moment to take a deep breath and compose himself, hoping the cop would think he was getting emotional because his dad was missing and not because he had anything to do with it. 

“I don’t know where he could’ve gone,” Billy finally said, glad that his voice was more even. Now he just had to lie convincingly about this next part. “But if there’s any way you could find him, I’d really appreciate it. He was the only one there for me after my real mom split. I just want to know that he’s okay.” 

The cop put his pencil down and gave Billy a searching look. Finally, he nodded, seeming placated. “I know it’s tough, not knowing where your dad is or what’s happened to him. The police are going to do everything they can to find him, though.” 

“Thank you,” Billy said. 

“Could you bring your mom back in here?” the cop asked. “I’ve got a few things I need to get from her.” 

Billy nodded and stood up. He found Susan in her room and told her the cop needed her, then went to his room and shut himself in. He could hear muffled voices outside the door, but when he laid down on the bed and covered his ears with his pillow, he couldn’t hear anything. 

He must’ve fallen asleep at some point because he found himself opening his eyes to his room cast in shadow. He sat up and looked out the window, where he saw the sun dipping down towards the horizon. The house was quiet now, which was more unsettling than Billy liked to admit. 

Billy wandered out of his room. He spotted a note sitting on the kitchen counter when he went to get a glass of water. Susan had written it, saying she’d gone to the police department and wouldn’t be back for a while. It also said Max was staying at a friend’s for the night. 

Billy crumpled the note up and threw it into the trash. His stomach was rumbling, urging him to eat something, but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep anything down. He went back to his room and lit a cigarette. He opened his window, leaning out it as he smoked. 

Part of Billy kept expecting his dad to walk through the door at any moment, screaming at Billy for what he did. The other part of him knew that wasn’t ever going to happen. His dad was dead, face-down in a shoddily dug grave out in the woods. 

A faint _thump_ coming from the front of the house caught Billy’s attention. He listened intently, waiting for someone—probably Susan—to open the door. 

Another _thump_ , a little louder this time, made Billy pull away from the window. Maybe Susan had gone shopping and was having trouble opening the door with bags in her hand. It had happened before. 

Billy stubbed his cigarette out on the windowsill. He went to the front door and opened it, then immediately stumbled back. His legs hit the couch and as he tried to right himself, he fell backwards into the coffee table. The sharp edge of it dug into his hip as his elbow slammed down onto its hard surface. 

Billy inhaled sharply. He ignored the pain as much as possible as he scrambled back to his feet. The empty doorway caught his attention. Billy cradled his elbow as he stared out the door, wondering if he was going crazy. 

No. No, there had been something—his _dad_ had been there when he’d opened it. Except his dad’s face was still collapsed in and he’d been covered in dirt, like he’d crawled out of the hole Billy had dumped him into. 

It took Billy a good minute to go back to the door. He was shaking as he walked outside and looked around. No one was outside. He went back in, closed the door, and searched the entire house. He was completely alone. 

Billy went back to his room and slammed his window shut. He tried to light another cigarette, but his hands were shaking so bad he couldn’t get the lighter to work. He threw the lighter at the wall instead, watching it rebound and fall to the floor. Billy flicked the unlit cigarette onto his bed and grabbed his keys. 

He practically ran out the door to his car. It took Billy a few tries to get his keys into the ignition, but he was determined to get out of here. He felt relief wash through him when the car finally revved to life. 

Billy drove, not thinking about where he was going. He drove until the houses and small shops gave way to a long stretch of road lined by towering trees. He’d been driving around so long that the sun had set. 

Billy couldn’t shake the picture of his dad, standing in the doorway with dead eyes and pale skin and dried blood on his face. Billy suddenly felt like he was going to throw up. He pulled over to the side of the road and shut the car off. He stretched his hands over the steering wheel so he could rest his head on his arms. His ears were ringing so hard that he barely heard the tapping on his window. 

Billy slowly lifted his head, dreading what he’d see. He was momentarily blinded when a light shone through the front windshield. He put a hand up to shield his face. 

“Billy!” someone shouted. He knew that voice. 

Billy opened his door and saw Max standing at the front of the car. 

“What’s wrong with you?” Max said, seething. “You almost ran us over, you asshole.” 

Behind Max, Billy could see those kids, the ones Max hung around with… Lucas, Mike, Dustin, and two others he’d never seen before but were around the same age. And then there was Steve, holding a flashlight. 

Billy stood up and immediately regretted it as nausea overtook him. He waved Max away as she started to approach him, then promptly turned away from his car and puked. He hadn’t eaten in so long that all he had to throw up was bile. It stung his throat and made his eyes water. 

Billy placed his hands on his knees, just trying to breathe so he wouldn’t throw up again. He barely avoided flinching when something appeared at the edge of his vision. He glanced over at it. It was a stick of gum. Billy looked up to see Steve standing next to him. 

“Take it,” Steve said, wagging the gum in front of Billy. “It helps.” 

Billy snatched it from his hand. He wiped his mouth on the collar of his shirt before unwrapping the gum and sticking it in his mouth. Billy straightened up as he chewed, the minty flavor masking the sour taste of bile. 

“Why the fuck are you even out here?” Billy asked, his voice hoarse. 

“Why the fuck are _you_ out here?” Lucas quipped from behind Steve. 

Billy glanced at him then turned his attention back to Steve. “Do you know how weird it looks for you to be wandering around in the woods in the dark with a bunch of kids?” 

Steve opened his mouth, then closed it, at a loss for how to respond. One of the kids—Dustin, Billy thought—marched up to Billy and pointed a finger at him. 

“It’s not weird,” the kid said. “We’re looking for your dad.” 

“Dustin!” Max snapped. 

“Is that true?” Billy asked Max sharply. 

Max crossed her arms, pouting. “It’s true. I know my mom reported him missing today, so I asked my friends to help search for him.” 

“Your mom thinks you’re staying the night at a friend’s,” Billy retorted. “She’ll be pissed if she finds out you were out here instead.” 

“But she’s not gonna find out,” Max said, trying to sound threatening, “because you’re not going to tell her.” 

Billy stared at her, wanting to cuss her out but knowing he wouldn’t do it. 

“We’re just trying to help,” one of the kids said. Billy couldn’t remember his name, if he even knew it. 

“He knows that, Will,” Mike said. “He’s just being a dick.” 

Billy shot Mike a look, but Mike was unfazed. Billy suddenly pulled back when someone grabbed his hand. He looked down to see a young girl with curly hair looking back up at him. 

“Don’t worry,” she said. “We’ll find him.” 

Billy was unsettled by her, so he decided now was a good time to make his exit. He stumbled to his car, but Steve caught him by the elbow before he could get in. 

“Harrington, I swear--” 

“When’s the last time you got any sleep?” Steve interrupted. 

“I’m getting plenty of sleep,” Billy bit out. 

“Ate?” 

Billy paused. “Saturday night.” 

Steve almost seemed concerned, but Billy doubted that concern would last long. Billy yanked his arm free and got in the car. 

“Hey,” Steve said before Billy could close the door. “There’s a diner down the road, just that way. Meet you there?” 

Billy gave Steve an once-over. “Why?” 

“You know why, asshole.” Steve slammed the door shut. 

Billy was about to start the car back up when his passenger side door opened. Will, the creepy girl, and Max all climbed in. Billy glanced into the backseat where the two new kids had taken up their positions. Then he glanced over at Max, who gestured to the steering wheel impatiently. 

Billy wanted to scream, wanted to punch something, but instead he started the car up. He pulled back onto the road and drove for a few minutes until he spotted a small diner with a neon sign over it. The parking lot was empty save for one car. Billy pulled into a space, then shut the engine off. 

The kids piled back out, running up to the diner. Billy followed after them, spitting his gum onto the pavement. He went inside in time to hear them all ordering milkshakes from a flustered-looking waitress. When she say Billy join them, she relaxed a little. Billy ordered a burger and fries before trudging after the kids as they picked out a booth. 

Billy slid into the bench opposite them. He spotted Steve’s car pulling into the parking lot, and watched as Steve and the other three kids walked into the diner and ordered. Somehow, everyone made it into the booth, even though Steve was squished up against Billy, and Billy was squished up against the wall. 

“Why are you even trying to find Neil?” Billy asked Max when everyone had settled down a bit. “I thought you didn’t want him to come back.” 

“Yeah, I don’t want him to come back,” Max replied, ripping up a napkin solemnly. “But I hate seeing how sad mom is without him around. As much as I hate Neil, I want mom to be happy.” 

Everyone fell silent as the waitress came by with the first round of food. Billy absentmindedly picked at his burger for a while before forcing himself to actually eat it. 

“You hate Neil, too, don’t you?” Max suddenly asked. 

Billy tried not to fidget as all eyes turned on him, waiting for his response. Of course he hated Neil. But he doubted Max fully understood why at her age, and he wasn’t about to explain it to her in front of an entire audience. 

Billy just shrugged instead. The kids soon lost interest in him and broke up into their own conversations soon after the waitress brought the rest of the food around. 

Steve nudged Billy in the side and Billy grimaced. 

“Sorry, I forgot about the, you know,” Steve said, glancing down between them. 

“It’s fine,” Billy said, rubbing at his bruised side. 

“Can I ask you something?” 

“It’s not like I’ll try to stop you.” 

“Do you know where your dad is?” 

Billy stopped eating, dropping his fries back onto the plate. “No,” he said, barely keeping himself from squirming at such a direct question. “If I knew, we wouldn’t be here right now, would we?” 

Steve regarded him steadily. Billy could only hold his gaze for so long before he had to drop it. Every time Steve looked at him, he felt like he was being pulled apart. It was unfair, really, for one person to hold that much power. Billy wanted to acquaint it with the power his dad had had over him, but he knew it wasn’t the same. He had a gut feeling that Steve wasn’t anything like his dad. 

Finally, Steve looked away from him when Mike accidentally knocked his glass over, spilling vanilla milkshake all over the table. Billy sank back into the seat and rested his head against the wall. He closed his eyes, vaguely listening to what everyone was talking about. It would’ve been nice if he hadn’t been scared that Steve suspected him of having to do something with his dad’s disappearance. Maybe Steve’s question had been an innocent one, but Billy wasn’t going to press it any further. 

What if the body was found? Would anyone be able to pin the murder on him? How would everyone look at him, knowing he was a killer? 

Billy jumped when his arm was pinched. He opened his eyes to see Max leaning over the table. 

“Wake up, sleepyhead,” she said. “You’re taking me home. You’re going to tell mom that you picked me up from my friend’s house, if she asks.” 

Billy finally noticed that Steve and the other kids had stood up and were moving towards the door. Someone had left money on the table for all the food. Billy slid out of the booth, going outside with the rest of the group. 

“How did you even get everyone in there?” Billy asked Steve, studying the small car he drove. 

Steve shrugged as he ushered the kids into it. “I have no clue. Magic?” 

Billy snorted in amusement. He was rewarded with a small quirk to Steve’s lips. 

“I know we aren’t really… friends,” Steve said, turning serious, “but I am sorry this is happening to you.” 

It kind of felt like some sort of small truce. Billy had to pull himself away when Max started to tug on his jacket. Before he got into his own car, he glanced back in Steve’s direction. Steve was watching him as he waited for the kids to find their seats, but his expression was open and almost soft. 

Billy almost waved goodbye like some lame idiot. Thankfully, he had some self-control. He got into the car and started it up. He really didn’t want to go back home, but how could he explain that Max? _Oh, hey, I think I saw the ghost of my dad, who I murdered, by the way_. 

Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. Bill tried to put all of it at the back of his mind as he drove home. He was feeling guilty, was all, and starting to see things that weren’t really there. It would go away with time. Right? 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s homophobia/homophobic language in this chapter

Two days later, when Billy was running on only two hours of sleep, there was a knock on the door. Susan dropped the plate she was washing back into the sink with a clatter and hurried to the door. Billy clenched his jaw as he watched her open it, sure someone had finally found his dad’s body and was about to break the news to Susan. It was hard to see who was on the other side of it from his position at the table, but he could hear a woman’s voice.

Susan stepped aside and the woman walked in. She almost looked forgettable with her plain face and dirty-blonde hair. It took Billy a second to recognize her, but when he did, his whole body froze up. It felt like someone had turned his world upside down in one split second. 

“Billy,” Susan said, “I hope you don’t mind, but I invited your mom to come and stay for a while. I thought you might like having her around while we search for Neil.” 

It took Billy a long time to find his voice. When he did, he didn’t sound like himself; he sounded like a lost kid. “How did you find her?” 

“Your dad and I got back in touch a few years ago,” the woman—Billy’s _mom_ \-- said. “He had my number. That’s how Susan got in contact with me.” 

Billy started to laugh, but there was no humor in his voice when he spoke. “You got in touch with dad but not me? You’re fucking _son_? What a load of bullshit.” 

Susan’s eyes widened. She glanced between Billy and his mom, then said, “Maybe you two need some time alone to talk. I have to go down to the police station and then put some posters up anyway.” She slipped out the door without so much as a goodbye. 

Billy’s mom sat down at the table. “Listen, I know this is a lot to take in, and I haven’t been around for a long time, but I’m here now. I’ll keep you company until Neil is found.” 

“And if he isn’t found? What if he’s dead? What then?” Billy’s throat was closing up on him and he tried to take deep breaths to get past it. 

His mom was silent for a moment, pulling on her necklace, which had a small cross dangling off it. “I don’t know. I haven’t thought about that. All I know is that I’d like to be part of your life right now. We have a lot of catching up to do, so--” 

“You want to get caught up?” Billy snapped. “Ever since you abandoned me, I’ve spent my life with a man who hates me, probably because you left him to take care of me all alone. He married some single mom he barely knew, then moved all of us to the middle of fucking nowhere. It’s all been a living hell since you left. Not that it was all that much better before you were gone.” 

“You’re dad doesn’t hate you,” his mom said softly, ignoring Billy’s last comment. “He just gets angry easily.” 

“And when he gets angry, he beats the shit out of me,” Billy spit out. “He probably thinks that if he hits me hard enough, he’ll knock the _fag_ out of me.” 

Everything went quiet between them then. Billy realized what he’d just said and stood up quickly. The room went fuzzy for a second, but Billy resisted grabbing onto the table for support. 

“I think it’d be for the best if you left,” Billy said, avoiding looking at his mom. “No one wants you here, anyway.” 

Billy headed out the back door before she could respond. He tried not to look at the shed as he walked past it, afraid he’d see the shovel that he’d used to bash his dad’s head in. He kept walking into the woods, not knowing where he was headed. He wanted to walk until his legs wouldn’t work anymore. 

Once he was surrounded by trees, completely alone, he started to cry. Billy felt ridiculous as he sobbed like a child. He leaned up against a tree and grabbed at his necklace. It used to be his mom’s until she’d given it to him. He’d kept it over the years, wanting to somehow keep her around after she’d left. But now he wanted nothing more to be rid of it. 

Billy pulled on the necklace until it came off his neck. Then he flung it as far away from him as he could. It still wasn’t enough, though. He picked up a nearby rock and threw it as hard as he could. 

Billy watched as none other than Steve Harrington walked out from behind a tree and was promptly struck in the shoulder by the rock. 

“Fuck!” Steve yelled out. He spun to face the direction the rock had been thrown from and locked eyes with Billy from across the small clearing. 

“Shit,” Billy breathed out. He wiped away his tears as fast as he could. 

Steve stomped over to him, and as he did Billy saw a line of kids following after him like a bunch of ducklings. 

“What the hell was that for?” Steve said, gesturing at his shoulder. He came to a sudden stop when he was close enough to see Billy’s ruddy, tear-stained face. 

“Why are out here anyway?” Billy asked, ignoring Steve’s searching look. 

“We’re looking for Neil, dumbass,” Max said, appearing next to Steve. 

Billy bit back the need to tell them to stop looking. It wouldn’t do them any good in the end. Billy pushed past Steve and started trudging further into the woods. After a minute, he realized he could hear footsteps following him. He spun around to see Steve and the kids right behind him. 

“Don’t follow me,” Billy said, exasperated. “I don’t know if you can tell, but I want to be alone right now.” 

Billy took a few steps back away from them, then faltered as one foot hit a steep incline and he started to fall back. Steve lunged forward and grabbed his arm, pulling him back onto level ground. Billy grasped at the collar of Steve’s shirt for a moment, almost wanting to pull him closer for one crazy moment. Then Billy let go so he could shove away from Steve. 

“Woah,” Lucas said. He was pointing at something behind Billy, although he had a creeping suspicion he already knew what it was. 

Billy turned around, facing a shallow ravine. Below them was the grave Billy had dug and dumped his dad in. But it looked like had been quickly dug back up. The body wasn’t there anymore. Billy froze, an immense chill running down his spine. 

“What do you think was in there?” Lucas asked. 

Steve tugged on Billy’s jacket. “Do you know?” 

Billy glanced at him. “No,” he managed to say. 

Mike was already sliding down the side of the ravine. Soon after, the rest of the kids followed after him so they could peek into the hole. Billy sat down heavily, pulling his legs up to his chest. Steve sat down next to him, keeping one eye on the kids. Billy was starting to shiver at the thought that someone might’ve come by and dug up his dad’s body. Hopefully, Steve would think he was just shivering from the cold. 

“What happened?” Steve asked quietly. 

Billy stared straight ahead. For a second, he thought that Steve had been asking about what had happened to his dad, then realized Steve was asking why he’d been crying. After a moment, he decided to answer as honestly as he could. 

“My mom is here,” he said. “My real mom. I haven’t seen her since she left when I was a little kid. She never came back to see me, never tried to get in contact with me, even though she had my dad’s number all this time and was talking to him.” 

“I’m sorry,” Steve said, his face unreadable. “That’s shitty.” 

“Am I really that unlovable?” Billy suddenly choked out, immediately regretting the words as they left his mouth. 

“Billy--” 

“No, please don’t answer that,” Billy interrupted. “I shouldn’t have said that in the first place.” 

Steve gave him a sad look, and Billy wanted to tell him to cut it out, but he was interrupted when Dustin hoisted something up into the air. 

“I found a shoe!” he called out. 

Max ran over to him and grabbed the shoe. She stilled as she looked at it closely. She looked up at Billy, her face pale. Billy felt his stomach drop as she climbed up the side of the ravine to hand the shoe over to him. 

“It looks like Neil’s,” she said. 

Billy took the shoe from her, already knowing it belonged to his dad, but he pretended to inspect it anyway. “It is his,” he confirmed, trying to keep his voice steady. “It’s one of his work shoes.” 

“Oh, shit,” Dustin said. He’d climbed up beside Max. “That was the only one I could find, but maybe his other shoe is around here somewhere.” 

“Have you looked in that hole?” Steve asked, nodding towards the grave. 

Dustin nodded. “We didn’t climb down inside, but it didn’t look like anything was in there. If we spread out a bit, we might be able to find some more clues.” 

“Billy, what if-- ” Max’s voice faltered a bit. “What if Neil’s dead?” 

Billy was quiet for a long moment. “Then good riddance to him.” 

Steve’s head snapped towards Billy. “Billy, you don’t mean that.” 

It took some effort to bite back a bitter laugh. “I do mean that,” Billy replied tersely. He handed the shoe back to Max. “I guess I should tell Susan you won’t be home for dinner.” 

Billy stood up, ignoring whatever Max was saying. He started the trek back to the house, feeling completely out of his element. He wished he could tell Max and her friends to give up looking for his dad. They’d only find a dead body. 

Though where that dead body was now, Billy had no idea, and that scared him more than anything. Especially after he’d seen his dad at his door. But, no, that was just some insane hallucination. It had to be. 

Billy shoved the back door to the house open. It was quiet inside. Billy poked his head into each room, but no one was home. His mom was gone. 

Billy blew out a little sigh. Any chance of reconnecting with her was out the window now. He’d gone and ruined things by running his mouth. Not that he wanted to reconnect after finding out his mom could’ve come to see him at any time. 

Billy went into the bathroom and took his contacts out. It felt like a relief to have the world softly blur together in front of him. He navigated his way into his bedroom and sat down on the bed. 

One way or another, Billy wanted the search for his dad to go away. If people stopped looking, then maybe Billy could start to forget what he’d done. And if someone figured out that he had killed his dad, well, at least he wouldn’t have to be stuck wondering if someone would find out. 

Billy sat on his bed for a long time, the sinking feeling in his stomach not going away. He finally moved when he heard the back door open and close, then multiple voices bickering in the kitchen. Billy fumbled around for the pair of glasses sitting on his nightstand and put them on, the world coming back into focus. 

As Billy wandered out of his room, he caught sight of Max and all her friends raiding the fridge. He glanced to the side and saw Steve sitting at the table, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but here. Billy walked into the kitchen and sat across the table from Steve. 

“Why does it feel like you’re following me?” Billy asked, aiming for a joking tone, but it came out more flat than he was hoping for. 

Steve glanced at him. “Those are some big glasses you’ve got there.” 

“The better to see your pretty face with.” 

Steve arched an eyebrow at him, but one corner of his mouth quirked up. Billy thought he’d like to make Steve smile at least once, just to offset some of the shitty things he’d put Steve through. They were interrupted as some of the kids started to gather at the table with their snacks. The creepy girl with the curly hair came up to Billy with a box of waffles in her hand. 

“Can I have some of these?” she asked. 

“Sure,” Billy replied. “Have the whole box if you want.” 

The girl’s eyes lit up and she rushed over to the toaster to heat up the waffles. Billy gave Steve a curious look. 

“Jane really loves waffles,” Steve said. “I’m pretty sure you just made her day.” 

Billy inclined his head and watched as Jane finished heating one batch of waffles. She took them out of the toaster and put them on a plate before popping more waffles in to heat. He shook his head. To each their own, he guessed. 

Billy sat at the table, half listening to the conversations going on, until Jane was done heating the entire box of the waffles. She carried them over to the table with a tub of butter and a bottle of syrup. Billy got up and offered his seat to her. She thanked him quietly before starting to slather butter onto the waffles. 

It was getting dark outside, but Billy wandered out the front door anyway. He lit a cigarette and stood on the porch, watching the occasional car go by on the street. As Billy’s cigarette was burning down to the butt, one car stopped at the curb in front of his house. Billy dropped his cigarette and ground it out with his foot as a woman got out of the car and walked up to the house. 

“Why are you back?” Billy asked icily as his mom stopped in front of him. 

“I thought about leaving,” his mom replied calmly. “But I know you’re going through a rough time and you didn’t mean what you said. However, I went to a nearby church and picked these up for you. You could use some guidance, which I haven’t been able to provide since I’ve been gone.” She handed a couple of pamphlets over, then went inside the house. 

Billy followed after her, not even looking at the pamphlets. “I’m not religious,” he said. The kids were now in the living room, gathered around the TV with the sound turned on high. He couldn’t see Steve, though, in either the living room or in the kitchen. 

“Well, I-- ” His mom stopped, wrinkling her nose in the direction of the TV. “Can we step back outside?” 

“I guess,” Billy replied. He led her through the back door. He almost tripped over Steve, who was sitting on the steps, looking off into the woods. 

Steve jumped a little then stood up, glancing between Billy and his mom. “Sorry. I’ll just go back in.” 

Billy mom held out a hand, stopping him. “You might want one of these, too.” She handed him a couple pamphlets. 

Billy finally looked at one of the pamphlets he’d given her, struggling to read it in the fading light. The first pamphlet was just had general information about one of the nearby churches. He looked at the next pamphlet. When he finally made out the first few words, though, he felt like someone had ripped a rug out from under him. He’d had thrown enough gay conversion rhetoric his way by both of his parents for Billy to be well-acquainted with it. 

“Get out,” Billy whispered. 

“Excuse me?” his mom said. 

“I said, get the fuck off my yard,” Billy said, his voice rising almost to a yell. “Why can’t you get that I don’t want to see you? And then you go and throw this—this bullshit at me.” He crumpled the pamphlets up and threw them into a nearby trash can. “I hated myself for so long all because you and dad wanted me to be ‘normal.’ News flash, that’s never going to fucking happen. I love dick and I’ll never stop loving dick.” 

Then Billy remembered that Steve was still here. Steve was staring down at the pamphlet, an unreadable expression on his face. Billy snatched it away from him and threw it into the trash, too. His face was hot with embarrassment and shame. 

Suddenly, his mom slapped him. 

“You don’t get to speak to me that way,” she growled. “I am your _mother_. You will treat me with respect. Since Neil isn’t here, I have to take care of you, and that starts with getting you back on God’s path.” 

Billy stood rooted to the spot. He took a deep, shaky breath in an attempt to ground himself. 

“You’re not my mom,” he finally said, voice surprisingly steady. “You abandoned me when I was only eleven. You left me to live with a monster. And now you expect me to pretend like none of that ever happened? No. Fuck you. The second you decided I wasn’t worth taking with you was the second you gave up on being my mom.” 

“I had no other choice,” his mom argued. “I didn’t have enough time to pack up your stuff and take you with me.” 

Billy balled up his fist. He was startled when Steve laid a hand on his arm. Billy had forgotten he was standing there. He just barely relaxed his fist. 

“I don’t want you or your weird religious superiority around me,” Billy said through clenched teeth. “So just go. And don’t ever come back. You’re not wanted here.” 

His mom stared at him for a long moment, then pushed past Billy and Steve. When she got to the bottom of the steps, she turned around and said, “Maybe one day you’ll understand why I did what I did.” Then she walked around the corner of the house and was gone. 

Billy’s legs gave out and he sat heavily against the stair railing. It felt like someone was crushing all of his insides together, and he didn’t know how to make it stop. He wanted to fall down and never get back up. 

“I guess you can go tell everyone at school that Billy Hargrove is a fag with terrible parents,” Billy said with a strangled voice, not looking at Steve. “It’ll be a great way to get even with me.” 

There was a long silence, then Steve softly said, “I’m not going to do that.” 

Billy’s head snapped up and he gave Steve a hard look in the dying light. “Why not? No, let me guess. You want to use all of this to blackmail me into doing shit for you, right?” 

Steve was shaking his head. “God, Billy, do you really think I’d do something like that?” 

Billy faltered, thrown off by the question. He stared at Steve, who looked anything but insincere. He opened his mouth, ready to apologize, when someone screamed. It sounded like it’d come from in front of the house. Billy rushed inside, automatically looking for Max. 

Max was standing in the living room with the other kids. She was still in one piece, so Billy continued through the house and out the front door. The light streaming out from the house illuminated a horrific scene. 

His dad. That was his dad in the yard, hovering over his mom, who was on the ground. Blood was spurting from a wound on her neck. She uselessly tried to stanch the bleeding with her hand. His dad lunged forward at her and Billy watched as he bit a huge chunk out of her throat. His mom jerked around a couple times, then went still. 

Billy backed up and accidentally kicked over a flower pot next to the door. He froze as his dad went stiff then looked over at him. Billy could see that the pale skin on his face was fucked up, like a weird version of bubble wrap. There was blood and gore all over him. 

Then his dad started to run at him, faster than Billy would’ve expected him to. Billy cursed and rushed back into the house, shoving everyone else back inside with him. He slammed the door shut and locked it. When he glanced over his shoulder, he saw Steve and the kids staring at him in terror. Billy shouted when he felt his dad run into the door, making it rattle violently. He backed away from it, looking for something to defend all of them. 

“Billy,” Max said, her voice shaking. 

Billy looked over at her. She was holding out a metal poker meant for the fireplace in trembling hands. Her face had gone even paler than usual. Billy took the poker from her, feeling his own hands shaking. 

He wasn’t crazy. He wasn’t… That _had_ been his dad at the door a couple nights ago. But still Billy’s brain rejected that thought. His dad was dead. There was no way any of this was real. Yet here he was, holding a poker in his hands while the kids gathered together behind him in a tight clump, fear in their eyes. And there Steve was, running into the kitchen. This was real. Oh, god, this was real. 

Billy flinched at the sudden booming sound of someone running into the front door. The door held, though. He glanced over and saw Steve dialing a number into the kitchen phone. 

“What are you doing?” Billy asked, sounding more demanding than he meant to be. 

Steve looked up at Billy sharply. “Calling for help.” He turned away from Billy and started to speak to someone on the other end of the phone. 

The sounds at the door had stopped. Billy slowly and cautiously approached the window and peeked outside. He couldn’t see anyone in the front yard. Except for his now-dead mom. 

“Billy,” Max said quietly, “what’s going on?” 

Billy looked over his shoulder at her and shook his head. He honestly had no explanation for what was happening. He looked back out the window, but couldn’t see his dad anywhere. Maybe he was gone. That-- 

There was a sound coming from the back of the house. Billy’s stomach dropped as he realized that the back door had been left unlocked. He pulled away from the window in time to see his dad walk-limp into the kitchen, sights set on Steve, whose back was turned from the entire scene. The kids screamed. 

Billy launched himself forward. His hip slammed into the edge of the counter as he came around it. He saw Steve jerk and drop the phone as he spun around. Billy slid in between him and his dad and swung the poker at his dad’s chest. 

The poker made a wet ripping sound as it tore through decaying flesh. His dad staggered back a couple steps, then looked at Billy. There was no recognition in those eyes. All Billy could see was a primal anger, not unlike when his dad flew into his rages when he had been alive. But there was no mistaking now that his dad was dead, yet somehow still up and moving. 

His dad lunged at him, spittle flying from grey lips. Billy’s world narrowed to this one moment and he instinctively swung out with the poker again, this time hitting his dad in the face, right underneath the original fatal shovel wound. His dad’s head snapped to the side and he stumbled to the side. 

Billy let out what he could only describe as a pained wail as he gripped the poker hard and drove it through his dad’s eye. Billy let the poker slip out of his hands as his dad slumped over and sunk to the floor. As the ringing in his ears faded, the screams of the kids came back to him. 

Billy looked into the living room at the kids clumped together and holding onto each other. Everyone except for Jane had horrified looks on their faces as they finally stopped screaming. Max was deathly pale now, and Billy thought that she might puke or faint. He thought he might do the same. 

His dad’s body remained motionless on the floor, face up with the poker sticking out of his face. Billy slowly turned around. Steve was still standing behind him, arms raised up as if trying to defend himself from a threat that was no longer there. 

There was a weird noise, as if someone was choking. Billy’s heart started to beat faster—if that was even possible--, thinking that his dad still wasn’t dead. Then Billy realized that he had been the one to make the noise. He raised his hand to his mouth, trying to stifle his sobs, but it was useless. Billy retched a little, made all the more painful by the fact that he couldn’t stop crying. 

Steve gripped his shoulder hard and steered him out of the kitchen, trying to give the dead body a wide berth. There was a sharp knock on the front door, and Billy flinched. 

Steve deposited Billy by the kids and went to open the door. Max latched onto Billy’s shirt as they watched Steve let the one police guy Billy had seen around town inside. Hopper. His name was Hopper. 

“What the hell is going on?” Hopper demanded as he stepped inside, intense concern on his face. Some of the concern went away when he saw that everyone in the house was unharmed. “Please tell me you didn’t murder the lady outside.” 

Jane wordlessly pointed at the kitchen. Hopper looked to Steve for confirmation, and Steve nodded once, suddenly looking sick. 

Hopper went into the kitchen and went still as he saw the dead body. “What happened?” he said, almost too quietly for Billy to hear. 

“I killed him,” Billy croaked out, hating how small his voice sounded. He readjusted his glasses with shaky hands. 

“Neil was already… dead, I think,” Max interjected. “He killed the woman outside, then got inside and tried to attack Steve.” 

Hopper glanced back down at the body, his eyebrows drawing together as he frowned. “I already called for backup. Some people will be by soon to process everything.” 

“I killed him,” Billy said again, louder this time. 

“Billy, you had to,” Steve said, trying to be reassuring, though the look of pity wasn’t helping. “That _thing_ already killed one person, and it would’ve killed us, too, if it could’ve. You saved my life.” 

“No, you don’t understand,” Billy persisted. “I…” He trailed off and met Hopper’s eye. It took only a second for understanding to cross the man’s face. 

“Why don’t we all go outside and wait for more people to show up.” Hopper didn’t take his eye off Billy while he spoke. 

Billy allowed himself to be ushered outside by Steve, who gripped his arm tightly. He could feel the faint tremors in Steve’s hand. Billy avoided looking into the yard, where his mom’s body was. He sat down heavily in the driveway, ignoring Steve’s insistence to get further away from the house, suddenly feeling exhausted. He watched as the police guy ushered everyone else away and sat them down on the curb, checking over them for any injuries. Then he walked up the driveway and sat next to Billy. 

“So you killed your dad,” Hopper said, as if the two of them were having a light conversation. 

Billy nodded. 

“Tell me how it happened.” 

Billy breathed in slowly, staring down at his hands. “We fought a lot. I was tired of it. I hit him with a shovel, but I didn’t mean to kill him. But I did. I buried him in the woods behind the house. Then he came back, and this happened.” He gestured weakly at the yard and the house. 

Hopper leaned back a bit and took a deep breath. “Your name’s Billy, right?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Tell me something, Billy. Were the fights with your dad ever physical?” 

“Yeah.” 

“How often did you land a hit on your dad?” 

Billy stared at Hopper. “I don’t think… Never. I never hit him. Not until I, you know.” 

“But he hit you?” 

Billy nodded, not knowing where Hopper was trying to go with this. 

Hopper sighed and rubbed at his eyes. “Jesus, kid. This is a real shit-show.” 

“I’m sorry,” Billy said quietly. 

“No, this is-- ” Hopper cut himself off. “You messed up, sure. But you don’t need to apologize.” He paused again. “Listen, when the other police officers get here, someone is going to take you aside and question you. Tell them only about what happened here tonight. Don’t say anything about before tonight. Got it?” 

“Got it,” Billy replied weakly, too tired and numb to question what Hopper was telling him to do. 

“Good. When you’re done giving your statement, I’ll take you to the police station so we can have a chat about everything else.” Hopper stood up with a grunt and started to head back over to everyone else. 

As Hopper reached the curb, a couple of police cars and an ambulance came down the street and stopped in front of the house. Billy felt his throat closing up, threatening to choke him if he didn’t let the tears fall. He felt cold to his core, and he didn't think he'd ever feel alright again. 


	4. Chapter 4

“Is he alright?” someone whispered just outside Hopper’s office door.

“Physically? Yes,” Hopper replied quietly, though his voice wouldn’t reach a real whisper. “Other than that, he’s messed up pretty bad.” 

Billy kept still, curled up in the chair inside Hopper’s office as he listened to the conversation. Hopper had left him in here while he’d gone off for a while to finish up some paperwork and talk to some of the other officers. Hopper probably thought Billy was asleep in the dim room, but if he were to walk in and check on Billy he’d find Billy wide awake. 

“What happened to his dad in the first place?” the other voice asked. Billy belated realized it was Steve. “The guy was like, I don’t know, a zombie or something. His head was all split open even before Billy took him down.” 

Hopper sighed. “I don’t know.” 

That was a lie. Hopper knew everything that Billy had done, every gruesome detail that Billy could recall. Billy had even told him about all the stuff that had happened before the day he had killed his dad. His chest had felt like it was on fire, forcing himself to recount all the bad times and having to watch Hopper try to keep a stoic face through it all. Billy had already accepted his fate, though; he knew he was going to jail after all this was over. 

“Does he have somewhere to stay?” Steve was asking. “I know Max is with her mom, but--” 

“He’ll stay with me,” Hopper interjected. 

Billy stirred a little. That was news to him. Maybe Hopper was lying, and he was really going to slap handcuffs on Billy the second Steve left. Billy didn’t want to know what Steve or anyone else was going to think once they found out the truth. 

There was a long silence before Steve finally said, “Do you think that, uh, that maybe the whole thing with Billy’s dad might have something to do with the Upside Down?” 

“No,” Hopper replied gruffly and almost too quickly. “Jane closed the portal.” 

“Right, of course.” A pause. “I don’t even know why I care about the guy. He’s been such a jackass to me up until recently.” 

It took Billy a second to realize Steve was talking about him again. 

“Just give him some time,” Hopper said. “He’s been through… a lot more than you know. He’s not a bad kid, honestly. Just messed up.” 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I should go. I’ll see you around.” 

“Yeah. Goodnight.” 

Billy waited a few seconds before unfurling himself and stretching. Hopper came into the room by himself, looking weary. 

“Hey, kid,” Hopper said. “We’re going to swing by your house so I can grab some clothes for you, then I’ll take you home.” 

Billy stared at him, confused. 

“By ‘home,’ I mean my house,” Hopper clarified. 

“Aren’t you going to arrest me?” Billy asked, still confused. His throat was scratchy from all the talking he’d done. 

Hopper gave him a sad, tired look. “I should. I really should. It would be the right thing to do, according to the law. But my gut is telling me not to turn you in. I think you’ve been through enough of your own personal hell that putting you into a new one is just overkill at this point.” 

Billy stayed seated, still staring at Hopper like he had grown two heads. He’d killed someone. Committed _murder_. This… He wasn’t… 

“Come on, kid,” Hopper urged. “I’ve got a daughter waiting at home for me to feed her an unhealthy dinner. We can’t sit around here all night.” 

Billy opened his mouth to say something, then shut it. He slowly stood up, convinced that this guy was playing some cruel trick on him. But Hopper just patted him gently on the arm and led him outside. Billy slid into the passenger’s seat of Hopper’s car, his body finally starting to ache from all the stored up tension. 

The entire car ride was silent. Just like Hopper said, they stopped at Billy’s house and Hopper ran inside long enough to pack a bag of Billy’s clothes. Billy sat in the car while he went in, his leg jiggling uncontrollably as he gazed out at the darkened house. There was police tape in the yard and on the house, but his mom’s body wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Billy dug his nails into his palm hard enough to leave marks. 

A few minutes later, Hopper came back to the car and threw a bag in the backseat. Then they drove out into the woods to a small cabin. A young girl was sitting on the steps outside, and she stood up as Hopper parked the car. Billy grabbed the bag from the backseat and got out. 

Billy recognized the girl as Jane from Max’s group of friends. He gave her a small nod, and she gave a small nod back. 

“Billy’s going to be staying with us for a while,” Hopper said to Jane. He opened the door and went inside. “I think we’ve got a frozen pizza I can cook.” 

Jane gave Billy a long look before following Hopper inside. Billy stood outside by himself for a minute. He could steal Hopper’s car and drive out of here. Billy was still sure this was some kind of trap. Why would anyone want to help him after all that he’d done? 

Billy stared at Hopper’s car for a moment longer. Then he turned away from it and went inside. 

The house, though fairly small, seemed cozy. Jane was sitting at a table looking through a book. Billy stepped closer to her and peeked at the book over her shoulder. The page it was on contained black-and-white photos of various landmarks. 

“You’ll have to sleep on the couch,” Hopper said as he put a frozen pizza into the oven. “It’s pretty comfortable, though. The bathroom is just over there if you want to take a shower before dinner.” 

Billy nodded absentmindedly. He went into the bathroom and closed the door. He glanced over and caught his reflection in the mirror. Dark circles stood out against skin that was quickly losing its golden color. There were little splatters of blood on his cheek. Billy raised one shaking hand to his cheek, then dropped it. He let his bag fall to the floor and stripped out of his clothes before stepping into the shower. 

Billy turned the water on, keeping it cold. He scrubbed at his face until he was sure that the blood was off of it. Then he quickly washed the rest of his body and turned the shower off. Over the sound of dripping water, Billy could hear Hopper talking in soft tones, probably to Jane. He stood in the shower for a while. He felt like he was waiting for something to happen, but he didn’t know what. 

Billy eventually got out of the shower and pulled on a fresh pair of clothes, stuffed the old ones in the bag, and stepped out of the bathroom. He put his bag on the couch and then sat down at the table with Hopper and Jane, feeling out of place. Hopper glanced up at him. 

“We’re just talking about the places in this book,” Hopper said, trying to rope him into the conversation. 

Jane turned the book around so Billy could get a look. On one page was a picture of a long expanse of a bridge over calm-looking water. 

Billy pointed at the picture. “I’ve been there.” 

“You have?” Jane said. She turned the book back around so she could study the picture. 

Billy nodded. “It’s called the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s in California.” 

“You’re from California, right?” Hopper asked. 

“Yeah.” 

“You got any relatives there?” 

Billy shook his head. “I don’t think so. I can’t remember ever going to see any.” 

Hopper nodded as if he expected that answer. 

“Have you been here?” Jane said when the silence between all of them had stretched a bit long. She showed Billy another picture. 

“The World’s Tallest Thermometer,” Billy read from the caption under the photo. “I haven’t been. I bet it would be cool to see, though.” 

“Not cool,” Jane said. “Hot. One hundred and thirty four degrees. That’s the temperature on the thermometer.” 

“Yes, well,” Hopper said. “Why don’t we put the book away to make room for plates and food?” 

*** 

Jane settled down in front of the couch just as Billy sat down on in. Hopper had left a few minutes ago after getting a call from Mike’s mom. She had concerns about the fact that her son had been at a murder scene today, and wanted a further explanation from Hopper. 

So now Billy was stuck in this house with a girl who was a little weird, to put it nicely. 

Jane had the landmark book in her lap, slowly flipping through the pages. Billy laid down on the couch and stared up at the ceiling. It took Billy a while to realize that the noise of pages turning had stopped suddenly. He glanced to the side to see Jane studying him the same way she’d been studying the photos in the book. 

“What?” Billy said, a little harshly. 

“Hopper says you grew up with a papa like mine,” she replied. 

Billy sat up, feeling his stomach clench. “What?” he said again, little more than a whisper. 

“My papa was a bad man. He was mean to me and other people like me. I don’t know if he’s alive anymore. Hopper is taking care of me now.” 

Billy took a shaky breath. “When you say he was mean, do you mean he hurt you?” 

Jane nodded, expressionless. Billy stared at her, unable to form words. Eventually, he slid down onto the floor and sat next to Jane. 

“Can I see that?” he asked, pointing at the book she was holding. He took it when she handed it to him and started to flip through it. “I’ve been here.” He showed her a picture that covered two pages. 

“Dis… neyland?” she read out from the caption. 

“That’s right. It’s this place, they call it the ‘Happiest Place on Earth.’ You go and ride rides, eat food, see shows, and people will dress up like cartoon characters.” 

Jane nodded along while he spoke. When he was done, she asked, “Is it really a happy place?” 

“Um, I guess so. I was pretty happy when I got to go. It’s like a kid’s dream come true.” 

Jane made a small noise and took her book back so she could study the picture. “Hopper said I have to go to bed by ten,” she said without looking up. 

Billy glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost ten. She was a well-disciplined kid. Billy swallowed as he wondered where she got that quality from. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to, I don’t know, watch T.V. or something?” he managed to say. 

Jane looked up long enough to give him a mischievous smile. “You won’t tell Hopper?” 

“Cross my heart.” Billy made an ‘X’ gesture over his heart. 

Jane mimicked the gesture. “What does that mean?” 

“I’m promising not to tell. But I’m putting my heart into, too. I guess.” 

Jane nodded in understanding and gave Billy a genuine smile. She closed her book and set it on the floor so she could turn on the T.V. She flipped through the channels until she found some movie Billy had never seen. The two of them sat up against the couch as they watched it and Billy tried not to let himself think of anything else. 

It turned out to be some cheesy comedy movie. Billy wanted to laugh at how bad it was, but Jane seemed so enthralled by it that he didn’t dare even comment on it. Even if Billy had no idea why Hopper would want to take him in, it was nice to know that he’d already been willing to help another kid with a shitty past. Plus, she seemed pretty happy. That was a good sign, wasn’t it? 

Eventually, Billy heard Hopper’s car pull up at the house. Billy shooed Jane away to her room, then turned the T.V. off. Hopper walked inside a minute later, looking even worse for the wear. He gave Billy a half-hearted goodnight before going to bed. 

Billy climbed back up onto the couch and laid down. He grabbed the blanket Hopper had left on the back of the couch and pulled it over himself. Now that it was dark and he was alone, he was at the mercy of his thoughts. He couldn’t close his eyes for a long time, wondering if maybe his dad wasn’t dead this time either and that he’d come back. Billy didn’t think he could kill his dad a third time. He’d probably just give up and let himself die by his dad’s hands, like he always thought he would. 

Billy finally squeezed his eyes shut. He could still see the way the poker had slipped through his dad’s head so easily. It made him want to scream. Instead, he pulled the blanket up over his head and bit his hand until the urge to scream, to cry, went away. 


	5. Chapter 5

Billy went back to school a couple days after the incident at his house. He could see Hopper struggling not to argue with Billy when he had said he was ready to go back, especially after he had refused to go to either of his parents’ funerals. But in the end the police chief had agreed to let him go. It wasn’t that Billy was afraid of falling behind in classes—though that was part of it, since he was already struggling in his physics class-- but that he needed to go somewhere mind-numbing for a few hours. He had too much time to think when he was stuck in Hopper’s cabin.

By the time Billy got to basketball practice, though, he felt exhausted. Too many people giving him pitying looks throughout the day. The news of the deaths at his house had spread quickly, it seemed. 

Billy went to the locker room after school, but didn’t get dressed for practice. He waited until everyone had filtered out-- including Steve, who had given him a concerned look while leaving-- before going outside. He sat down on top of a picnic table and lit up a cigarette. He took a long drag then breathed out slowly. 

He should leave. Leave Hawkins and go back to California. Nothing was keeping him here. 

Hopper was supposed to pick him up after practice, then drop Billy off at his house so Billy could get his car. Instead of driving back to the cabin, Billy could drive out of town. No one would miss him. 

“Hey.” 

Billy startled a little and glanced over to see Steve standing next to the table he was sitting on. 

“Shouldn’t you be in practice?” Billy said. 

“Shouldn’t _you_?” Steve countered. 

“Yeah, well, I think I get a bit of a pass considering I’m in the middle of a fucking nightmare.” 

Steve stiffened a bit. “How are you doing?” 

Billy gave him a sidelong look. “Did your kiddy daycare group ask you to check on me?” He knew he should be nicer since Steve was making an effort with him (and cared about him, but that was something Billy didn’t want to think about), but he also didn’t want to get any closer to Steve. Not when he was thinking of leaving this entire town behind. 

Steve was quiet a moment, his jaw set. Eventually, he gestured at the table and said, “Can I sit with you?” 

Billy tried not to crush his cigarette in his hand. “Sure. Whatever.” 

Steve hopped up onto the table, letting his legs dangle off the side. “When I was ten, I was riding in the car with my mom when we got hit by a drunk driver. I was able to get out, but my mom was stuck inside. I couldn’t help her get out, and by the time an ambulance arrived, she was dead.” 

Billy froze with his cigarette halfway to his mouth. 

“I know it’s not the same as what you went through,” Steve said, unsettlingly calm, “but I can understand how hard it is to lose even one parent. It’s hard not to feel guilty about it.” 

Billy let his hand drop to his lap. When he looked over at Steve, he was surprised how vulnerable he felt under Steve’s gaze, like he wanted to spill everything. Billy bit his tongue so he wouldn’t say something too stupid. So much for trying to keep his distance. 

“How long did it take you to, I don’t know, stop feeling guilty?” Billy eventually asked. 

Steve made a noise that was somewhere between bemused and upset. “A long time. My dad remarried after only a few months after my mom died, and for some reason I felt the most guilty about that. Like, my mom wasn’t really missed by the person who was supposed to love her the most, and there was nothing I could do about it.” 

Billy started to reach up to touch Steve’s arm, then rethought that and offered his cigarette to Steve. Steve took it. 

“I lost both my parents in one night.” Billy said it like it was some cruel joke that he was finally understanding the punchline to. “I… I can’t close my eyes without seeing my dad dying because of what I did.” 

“You did what you had to do,” Steve reassured him. 

“Did I?” 

Steve studied him as if trying to figure something out. Billy knew he didn’t know about the first time he’d killed his dad, but it still felt like it was written all over his face for Steve to read. 

“No offense,” Steve said, smoke curling out from his mouth, “but your mom seemed like kind of a bitch. And your dad was the one who gave you all those bruises, didn’t he?” 

“Yeah, that was all him.” Billy couldn’t find it in himself to deny that. “And, yeah, my mom was kind of a bitch, wasn’t she?” 

Steve let out a soft chuckle. Billy chuckled, too, and then they were both laughing. Everything was so fucked up, but Steve’s laugh was infectious, and it felt good to let some of the pent-up tension out. Steve didn’t even comment when Billy’s laughs turned into quiet sobs. He just passed the cigarette back quietly. 

Billy wiped his face and took a drag, ignoring his shaky hands. “Hey, man, I’m… I’m sorry.” 

Steve didn’t say anything, just gave him a look that said he knew what Billy was talking about: beating him up, being a complete jackass, everything. Finally, Steve let out a small sigh. 

“I’m grateful you saved my life. I am. But you also almost killed me before that.” 

“I know.” Billy knew he hadn’t been in his right mind when he’d attacked Steve, but he also knew that wasn’t a good excuse. He could barely even remember everything that had happened the night he’d been sent out to find Max. It was like he’d blacked out near the end of the whole affair. 

Billy drew his shoulders up to his ears, then let them drop. He glanced over his shoulder when he heard the school doors opening. The rest of the basketball team was wandering outside after practice. 

“I should go get my stuff,” Steve said. He gave Billy one last lingering look. “I guess I’ll see you around.” 

Billy gave him a small nod, then watched as Steve went back inside, pushing through the crowd of other boys. When he turned back around, he could see Hopper’s car pulling into the parking lot. Billy blew out a breath as he gathered his stuff and walked to Hopper’s car. Hopper gave him a small nod when he got into the passenger seat. 

It was a silent ride to Billy’s house. He felt something like dread settling in his stomach as Hopper parked in the driveway behind Billy’s car. He couldn’t even look at the yard, sure he’d see a bloody mess there. 

“Want me to go in with you?” Hopper asked, one hand on the door handle. 

Billy shook his head and Hopper dropped his hand. 

“Alright,” Hopper said almost to himself. “I’ve got to go back to work. Think you can make it back to the cabin by yourself?” 

“Yeah. I’ll be fine.” Billy opened the car door and started to slide out. Then he hesitated, sitting back down. “What’s the Upside Down?” 

Hopper’s head snapped towards him. “How do you know about that?” 

“I heard Steve mention it at the police station, after you took me there. He thought it might’ve had something to do with my dad.” 

Hopper was quiet for a moment, then he sighed. “It’s not important, okay? But if it turns out it is, I’ll tell you about it.” 

It wasn’t the answer Billy wanted, but he’d roll with it for now. Maybe he could pry more out of Hopper later tonight. Billy just nodded and got out of the car. He walked up to the front door of the house, ripped police tape out of the way, and opened it. He turned around to see Hopper looking at him from the car before he pulled out of the driveway and was gone. 

Billy lingered in the doorway, almost afraid to walk inside. Eventually, he was able to move his legs and he went inside, pointedly avoiding looking at the kitchen. He went to his room and packed up as much stuff as he could in a suitcase. He wondered if Max had been able to get all of her stuff, or if Susan had kept her far away from the house. Billy hadn’t seen or talked to either of them since the incident. 

Billy finished packing in record time, then rushed back out of the house, pausing only long enough to lock the door behind him. By the time he got into his car, his suitcase stuffed in the backseat, he was lightheaded. He took a shaky breath. Then another. And then he screamed, a strangled sound that he’d never made before. 

He rested his forehead on the steering wheel, gasping in air as he tried not to cry. He was sick of crying. Eventually, he collected himself and grabbed his keys from the dashboard. 

The sound of his car roaring to life as he twisted the key in the ignition helped calm him a bit. He started to drive, gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. He turned the radio up as high as it would go. He wanted to get the fuck out of here and never look back. 

It wasn’t until Billy was coming up on the exit sign for Hawkins that he snapped back to attention. He could barely remember how he’d even gotten here. The last ten minutes of his drive were a blank. 

Up ahead, there was a roadblock, hindering the way in and out of town. Billy braked and turned the radio down, staring at the barriers set up and the military-looking people mulling about next to a couple of Jeeps. He stared at it for a long moment, then shook his head. Why did it feel like the world was so against him? 

Billy turned the car around and headed back towards Hopper’s cabin. All he had to do was wait for the roadblock to go away, and then he’d be out of here. 

*** 

“What’s up with the roadblock at the edge of town?” Billy asked Hopper later that night. Jane had gone to bed an hour earlier, but he and Hopper were still up. 

Hopper looked up from the newspaper he was skimming at the kitchen counter. “What are you talking about?” 

Billy furrowed his brow and shut his physics textbook. “There were, like, military people who’d put a barrier up, blocking people from coming in or out of town. I saw it today.” 

Hopper studied him silently for a moment, probably figuring out that Billy had been trying to leave Hawkins. Then he looked confused. He grabbed the phone and started dialing a number. 

“Hey, it’s me,” Hopper said when someone must’ve picked up the on the other end of the line. “Can you tell me if we authorized a roadblock anywhere in town?” 

There was the small sound of someone speaking. Hopper frowned. 

“Why am I just now hearing about this? And why is it even up?” 

Hopper listened to the other speaker once again, then promptly hung up once they’d stopped talking. Billy gripped his pencil tightly when Hopper turned a disgruntled gaze on him. Hopper must’ve caught the small movement because he tried to look a little more relaxed. 

“I’m not mad at you,” he clarified. “I’m mad that the military moved in here right under my nose and I didn’t even know about it.” 

“Why are they here?” Billy asked, trying to keep his voice from sounding strangled. It took a lot of willpower to put his pencil down and keep his hands from balling up into fists. 

Hopper shook his head. “I have no idea. I’m going to go out there and find out.” He started to move past Billy, then stopped and squatted down next to him. He was silent for a while, looking like he was struggling to figure out what to say. “Hey, uh, I’m not, you know, going to hurt you. I can get a little angry or frustrated at times, but I’m not going to take it out on you.” 

Billy nodded jerkily. 

Hopper opened his mouth like he had more to say, then he shut it and went to the door. Billy watched out of the corner of his eye as Hopper pulled on his coat. 

“I’ll be back in maybe an hour or two,” Hopper said. “If you or Jane needs anything and I’m not back, try calling the Byers. Their number is taped to the fridge.” 

“Got it,” Billy replied roughly. 

Hopper hesitated once more. But then he was out the door a second later. Billy sank back into his chair as he listened to Hopper’s car start up then drive away. Soon, it was quiet in the house. Billy went over to the couch and tried to get some sleep. 


	6. Chapter 6

The sound of something banging outside the house pulled Billy out of his sleep. His first thought was that Hopper was back, so he settled back down and closed his eyes. There was another bang a few seconds later, but it didn’t sound like it was coming from the front of the house.

Billy opened his eyes again and fumbled around for his glasses, finally finding them sitting on the coffee table. He put them on and stared in the direction the sound had come from: the side of the house. He couldn’t really see much in the dark, but he waited for another noise as he held his breath. It only took a few seconds before the noise happened again. It sounded like something was hitting the wall. 

Even though he wanted to crawl back under the blanket and pretend like nothing was going on, he just couldn’t. He needed to know what was making the noise, even if it was just Hopper. He pulled on his shoes and staggered around in the dark, searching for a flashlight at silently as he could. He found one in one of the kitchen drawers. 

Billy flicked the switch on the side of the flashlight. Thankfully, it turned on. He took a deep breath, then slipped out the front door, keeping the light trained on the ground right in front of him. He lifted the flashlight up long enough to see that Hopper’s car wasn’t here. He took a deep breath and creeped along the wall until he got to the edge of the house. 

Billy peeked around the corner, but couldn’t see anything without any light. He heard another bang. Billy gritted his teeth and took a chance, angling the flashlight along the side of the house. At first, all he saw was a mess of branches hitting the wall, and was ready to berate himself for being so afraid of a few sticks. 

Then he moved the flashlight so it shone further away from the cabin. Those branches were attached to an animal. It was a deer, striking its antlers against the cabin over and over again. It gave no indication that it was aware of Billy’s presence. 

“Dead.” 

“F-- ” Billy jumped at the softly uttered word and spun around. Jane was standing behind him, staring at the deer. “You should be inside,” he said, and Jane barely spared a glance at him. 

Then Billy registered what she’d said and turned back to the deer. He looked closely at it. The deer’s side had a big chunk taken out of it, skin peeled back and bright bone exposed. The thing shouldn’t be alive right now. Billy tried not to gag at the sight. 

A sickening crack rang out as the deer’s head snapped to the side, far past what it should be capable of doing. The deer collapsed onto the ground. Billy waited for it to move, but it didn’t. He couldn’t help but think about when he’d killed his dad the first time. 

Jane started to wander over to the deer, but Billy caught her arm and pulled her back, alarmed to see blood trickling out of her nose. “Hey, don’t go near that. Let’s go back inside.” He had no idea what had just happened, but he wasn’t going to stick around out here and find out. 

Jane glanced at the deer once more, then nodded and wiped her nose. Billy followed her inside and shut and locked the door. He briefly wondered if Hopper kept a gun in here. He shook the thought off. The deer was just a freak accident. Right? 

Billy was just about to write everything off as just that when something came crashing through the kitchen window, shattered glass falling onto the counter and floor. It soared past Billy and hit the opposite wall. Billy flinched and shone the flashlight in that direction. On the floor was a dead bird, most of its feathers gone and flesh falling off its body. 

“What the fuck?” Billy muttered. 

He started to approach the thing when another bird came crashing through the window. But this one didn’t drop to the floor like the other one had. It crashed around the room, bouncing off the walls and the ceiling. Then another bird got inside. And another. Billy grabbed Jane and dragged her to the floor with him, trying to shield her as more and more birds came soaring into the room. 

It sounded like they were in the middle of a brawl, the birds ricocheting off everything, even each other. Billy felt beaks and claws scraping and stabbing his back and neck and arms as he tried to keep Jane covered. And the smell. The smell of carrion stung his nose and made him want to puke. 

Billy didn’t know what to do. If he went outside, would it be worse? Would he and Jane be mobbed to death by goddamn birds? 

Billy flinched again when he heard the sharp sound of bones breaking all around him. He chanced a glance up in time to see the birds falling to the floor one-by-one in quick succession. Some stopped moving when they hit the ground, while others squirmed, trying to get back up again. 

That was as good a sign as any to get the fuck out of here. He hoisted Jane up into his arms and made a run for the door, grabbing his keys off the table on the way. He burst through the front door into a mass of birds. The smell was even worse out here. Billy thought he might suffocate on it. 

Somehow, he made it to his car and stuffed Jane into the passenger seat before getting in himself. His heart leapt with relief when the car started without a hitch. The relief quickly went away when, almost as a unit, the birds started smashing themselves into his windshield, making cracks spread across the glass. 

Billy put the car in reverse and pressed down on the gas. He almost screamed when a bird shot through the windshield, glass shattering into the car. He felt something slice his cheek, but tried to focus on not backing the car into a tree and condemning them to be pecked to death. The bird that had gotten in was writhing around on the back seat. 

By some miracle, Billy got the car to a clearing where he could turn around and shift into drive. Then he was racing out of the woods and onto the road. When he glanced back, he could see a black mass hovering over the trees but not following them. 

Jane reached into the backseat and grabbed the still-moving bird. She chucked it back out the windshield. 

Billy grabbed her wrist as she pulled her arm back. “Did you just touch that thing? You don’t know what kind of diseases it might have.” 

Jane seemed unconcerned with that. Her nose bleed had gotten even worse, and Billy didn’t know how worried he should be about her. She took her arm back and looked out the window, twisting around to get a look at the mass of birds quickly fading into the distance. 

“Do you know where the Byers live?” Billy ventured. He didn’t trust himself to get them to the right place, not right now. 

Jane turned back to him and nodded. She pointed him in the right direction, telling him when and where to turn. Soon, he was pulling up in front of the one house he wished he could forget. He almost convinced himself that Steve would come waltzing out the front door. 

Instead, a woman with wavy brown hair came outside, a concerned look on her face. A little of the concern left when Jane got out of the car. The woman held her arms out and Jane ran to her. Billy got out, too, and cautiously approached her as he wiped at his cheek. His hand came away smeared with blood. 

“Billy?” the woman asked as she held onto Jane. 

“Yeah,” he replied, too frazzled to consider how she knew his name. 

The woman gave him a once over, then nodded at the door. “Let’s go inside.” 

Billy followed her and Jane in, his body starting to burn as the adrenaline wore off. His arms were covered in cuts and scratches where he hadn’t had any clothing to protect them. Maybe he should be the one worried about contracting a disease. 

The woman told him to sit at the kitchen table while she got a first aid kit. Jane sat down across from him. 

“Are you hurt?” Billy asked. 

Jane shook her head. She kept quiet for a moment, then said, “Thank you.” She elaborated when Billy gave her a confused look. “You protected me.” 

Billy leaned back then winced when his back hit the chair. “Yeah, well, I couldn’t just let you get attacked by crazy birds.” He fell silent as the woman came back into the room. 

Behind the woman was Will, who immediately went to Jane to check on her. The kids moved to the living room and sat down on the couch. The woman sat down in front of Billy. He wondered if she knew that he had beat Steve up just a few feet away from here. 

“I’m going to clean you up, alright?” she said. 

“Alright.” 

The woman pulled out some gauze and alcohol. “I’m Joyce, by the way.” She started to wipe at the cuts on Billy’s arm, and he tried not to wince too much. “Hopper told me you were staying with him.” 

Billy made an assenting noise. He wondered what all Hopper had said to her about him. 

Joyce worked silently for a while. She seemed a little too calm for Billy’s liking, but he tried not to let it get to him. If he let anything get to him right now, he might have a breakdown. It was bad enough right now that he couldn’t get himself to stop shaking. 

“So,” she said conversationally. “Mind telling me what happened?” 

Billy tensed up. “You’re going to think I’m crazy.” 

Joyce laughed. “Trust me, I’m the last person who’s going to think that.” 

Billy was surprised at how sincere she sounded. Surprised enough that he actually told her what had happened to him and Jane, though he couldn’t stop his voice from trembling. It was like talking about the plot to some cheap horror movie. Joyce kept quiet through the entire recounting. 

Joyce sighed when Billy stopped talking. “This can’t be good,” she muttered, mostly to herself. 

_No shit_ , Billy wanted to say. Instead, he kept his mouth shut as Joyce finished cleaning him up. At least she hadn’t called him crazy. When she was done, she disappeared from the kitchen for a minute with the first aid kit, then came back with a shirt. 

“Here.” She handed him the shirt. “Hopefully this will fit you.” 

“Thanks,” Billy muttered. He pulled his shirt off slowly, grimacing at the holes in it before he pulled on the new shirt. When he was done, he had to take a moment to breathe through the burning pain. 

“Do you know where Hopper is?” Joyce was asking. 

“He, uh, he said he was going to check on a roadblock in town. But that was a couple hours ago.” 

Joyce nodded as if she hadn’t expected much more information than that. “I’ll call around and see if I can find him. You should go lay down on the couch and try to get some rest.” 

Billy wasn’t going to argue with that. He could really stand to lay down for a while. He wandered into the living room while Joyce started dialing a number on the phone. Both Jane and Will were already asleep on one couch, so Billy took the other one, laying down gingerly on his stomach. He took his glasses off and put them on the coffee table. Maybe if he could get to sleep, then everything would be perfectly normal when he woke up. 

That was a lot of wishful thinking on his part. 


	7. Chapter 7

“You know he’s the one who beat Steve up, right? And now you’re letting him into our house and letting him sleep on our couch.”

“What was I supposed to do, Jonathan? Leave him outside and let him fend for himself?” 

“Probably, yeah.” 

“He’s not as bad of a kid as you think.” That was Hopper’s voice. It pulled Billy out of his daze. “He kept Jane safe when he could’ve run away from the danger all by himself.” 

“Listen,” Joyce said. “He’s here now. He hasn’t caused any trouble. Can we focus on the real problem here? Please?” 

Billy slowly lifted himself up off the couch, his body an aching mess. He took a few seconds to search the coffee table for his glasses, then slipped them on. It was still dark outside, probably past midnight by now. Jane and Will were still asleep on the other couch. He wandered into the kitchen, where Hopper and Joyce where. Another guy—Jonathan-- was there, too. Billy vaguely recognized him as Nancy’s new boyfriend. 

Jonathan gave him a steely look. “I’m going to call Nancy and let her know what’s up.” He slipped past Billy to get to the phone. 

Hopper waved Billy into the kitchen. “How are you feeling, kid?” 

“Like I want answers,” Billy replied. 

“That’s what I thought you’d say. Why don’t you sit down?” 

Billy complied, sitting down where he could see both Hopper and Joyce. He watched the two of them exchange a look. Joyce nodded and Hopper sighed. 

“Look, I don’t know much about what’s happening right now,” Hopper said, leaning back against the kitchen counter. “Turns out there’s more than one roadblock in town. In fact, we’re all basically being fenced in by the military.” 

Billy frowned. “Why?” 

“We don’t really have a lot of high tech stuff in Hawkins, so our coroner had to send samples of… your dad to be examined by someone else with the right resources. They couldn’t find any reason why your dad came back to life like he did, and now higher ups are freaking out about there possibly being some weird disease in this town. So now we’re under quarantine until they can figure out what’s going on.” 

“What do you think is going on?” Billy ventured to ask. 

“We think,” Joyce said, “that there’s something more supernatural going on.” 

Billy almost laughed, but the serious look on both Hopper’s and Joyce’s faces kept him from doing so. “Does this have to do with the Upside Down, whatever it is?” 

Joyce seemed surprised that he knew about that. Hopper just crossed his arms over his chest, looking disgruntled. 

“I hope to God that it doesn’t,” he replied. “But it seems like one of the only likely explanations right now.” 

“You said you’d tell me about it if it was important. This seems pretty important. I’ve been attacked twice now by… by I don’t even fucking know what. Dead things.” 

Joyce and Hopper shared another look. 

“You should tell him,” Hopper said to her. “It only seems right.” 

Joyce gave a weak smile and sat down across the table from Billy. “The Upside Down is another dimension. It looks like our world in some ways, but it isn’t. There’s these creatures… monsters, really, that live there. My son Will got stuck there not all that long ago, but even when we got him back, he was still connected to the place.” She paused here, a pained look on her face. Then she regathered herself and continued. “He was being controlled by one of the monsters. Jane was able to close the portals to the Upside Down and we got Will back, but maybe, somehow, there are still portals open.” 

“What do you mean, Jane was able to close them?” 

“She has powers,” Hopper stated, way too calmly for Billy’s liking. “She can move things with her mind.” 

Billy glanced between the two of them, thinking they must be playing some sort of joke on him. But then again, he couldn’t deny all the freaky stuff that had been happening around him. He was pretty willing to believe what he was being told, no matter how outrageous. 

“Now you get why I’m the last person to think what you said is crazy,” Joyce said, giving a little shrug. 

“So you think my dad was, what, being controlled by something? That all those animals were, too?” 

Joyce shrugged again. “It’s possible. There’ve been a couple reports of other weird incidences like what happened to you last night, but on a much smaller scale.” 

“I would’ve pieced it together sooner if I hadn’t wanted it all not to be happening,” Hopper said. “But now I’m thinking back on the reports the last few days about people seeing fucked up looking animals running around, and I--” He cut himself off and set his jaw. 

Billy almost lost his composure for a second. He clenched his fists, fighting down the urge to punch something. He wanted out. Out of this house, out of this town, out of this life. He breathed out slowly. 

“Kid, hey.” Hopper placed a hand on Billy’s shoulder gently. “It’ll be alright. We’ll figure this out.” 

Billy shook his head. “What if all of this is my fault? I’m the one who--” 

“No,” Hopper interrupted him. “None of this is your fault. You had no control over what happened to your dad after he died. You understand?” 

Billy just looked up at him. 

“Please tell me you understand,” Hopper said softly. 

Billy felt his throat closing up and he had to take a moment before he could speak. “I understand,” he finally managed to say. 

Hopper squeezed his shoulder. “Good. You should go get some more rest. We can talk more about this in the morning.” 

*** 

Billy sat squished up in between Steve and Max on the Byers’ couch. The rest of Steve’s kid posse, Nancy, the Byers, and Hopper were all equally squished together on the other couch and seats. Billy felt like he was an elephant in the room. Almost everyone kept sending him looks like he was intruding on their space. 

Apparently everyone here knew about the Upside Down and Jane’s powers, and had first-hand experience with them. It didn’t help to make Billy feel like less of an intruder even though he was in the know now. 

“I don’t trust him,” Mike said loudly, pointing at Billy. 

Hopper opened his mouth to respond, but Jane grabbed Mike’s arm and pulled it down. 

“I trust him,” she said. “He protected me.” 

Mike fell silent, and everyone’s heads turned towards Billy. Billy wanted to shrink back into the couch. 

“Fine,” Mike finally said. “But he better not betray us or anything.” 

“We’ve got our eye on you.” Dustin pointed two fingers at his eyes, then pointed them at Billy. 

Billy wanted to ask him how he would even betray them in the first place, but decided it was probably better to keep his mouth shut. 

“Alright, alright,” Hopper said placatingly. “Let’s focus on the task at hand. We’re going to split up into groups and search for any signs of the Upside Down, or any clues to what’s been happening.” 

“What if a zombie attacks us and tries to eat our brains?” Dustin asked, wide-eyed. 

“The Mind Flayer would do the brain eating, dummy,” Lucas said. “His slaves just bring us to him.” 

Billy blew out a sharp breath. He was starting to feel like he should’ve kept his head in the sand instead of trying to learn about what was really going on. 

“Don’t worry,” Steve said to Billy softly. “I don’t understand most of what they’re saying, either.” 

Billy raised his eyebrows at him. “That’s reassuring,” he replied sardonically. 

Steve smiled at him in amusement, and Billy almost smiled back. He liked having Steve’s attention directed at him in a good way. He didn’t know if Steve would ever want to be friends with him after all the shit Billy had put him through, but it was a nice thought. 

A sharp elbow to Billy’s side made him gasp in a breath. “What the fuck?” he said, turning to Max as he clutched his aching side. 

“Me and Lucas are going with you and Steve to search for stuff,” she stated. 

“When was this decided?” 

“Right now.” 

Billy opened his mouth to protest, but shut it when Steve laid a hand on his arm. 

“That sounds good,” Steve said. “We can take my car. But I’m driving this time.” 

Max flipped her hair over her shoulder as she stood up. “Sure. Though I am a pretty good driver.” 

Steve pulled a face. “That’s debatable.” He stood up, too, so Billy followed suit, not wanting to know what they were talking about. 

Lucas gave Billy a distrustful look as their little group went outside. Billy didn’t blame him. He’d do the same thing if he was in Lucas’ shoes. 

“Hey, uh, do you even have a weapon or something?” Billy asked Steve. He turned around as everyone else started to filter outside. 

Steve popped the trunk of his car. He lifted a bat out of it. Nails were driven through the bat every now-and-again. “I’ve got this.” 

Billy eyed it skeptically. 

“Hey, this thing has saved my ass more than once.” Steve shouldered the bat defensively. 

“I’ll take your word for it. You don’t have another weapon in there, do you?” 

“Here,” Hopper said from behind Billy. 

Billy turned around and looked at what Hopper was holding in his hands. 

“No,” Lucas almost yelled. “No. You are not giving him an axe.” 

Hopper rolled his eyes and shoved the axe into Billy’s hands anyway. “I’m not sending all of you out there without protection. I trust Billy to use this only if it’s really needed. Right?” 

Billy nodded. “Right.” He gripped the axe handle hard and held it close to his body so that he wouldn’t throw it far away from himself. He didn’t like the idea of having to use it against anything. Or anyone. He’d already killed one person in his life, and he didn’t want to kill anyone else. 

Lucas glared at Billy, then Hopper. “If you find us chopped to pieces, at least you’ll know who did it.” 

“Don’t,” Hopper said sternly. “That’s not something to joke about. Steve’ll take all of you to the quarry, and you’ll start the search there. And you won’t make any more murder jokes.” 

Lucas looked like he wanted to say more, but instead climbed into Steve’s car. Max climbed in after him. Hopper gave Billy a sympathetic look before heading to his own car, where Jane, Mike, Will, and Joyce waited. Jonathan and Nancy, accompanied by Dustin, were all getting into Jonathan’s car. 

“It’ll be alright,” Steve said. “Jane likes you, so the kids will warm up to you eventually.” 

Billy put his axe into the trunk of the car. “I don’t know about that.” He ignored Steve’s searching look and slid into the passenger seat. 

A second later, Billy heard the trunk closing, and then Steve was getting into the car. Billy kept his eyes on the road in front of them as Steve drove to the quarry. The car was uncomfortably silent. Billy wished he could just sink back into the seat and pretend like they were headed somewhere nicer where they weren’t going to be searching for monsters or portals to another dimension. 

Instead, Steve drove them to a water-filled quarry. Billy got out of the car as soon as it stopped and walked up to the cliff’s edge, where he could look down at what had effectively been turned into a man-made lake. The view should’ve been pretty, but Billy felt put-off by it. He shook the feeling off and joined Steve in pulling their weapons out of the trunk of the car. 

“Let’s go around the quarry first, then we can walk in bigger circles around it,” Steve suggested. 

“As long as Billy stays in front,” Lucas said. Beside him, Max picked up a small rock and flung it over the edge of the cliff. 

Billy blew out a frustrated breath, but took the lead. Everyone else fell in behind him and they walked along in silence for a few minutes. He had no idea what he should be looking for, but he hoped none of them found it. 

Eventually, Max and Lucas got bored and wandered off to the side to search for bugs. Billy kept one eye on them as he walked along. Steve caught up with Billy and idly let his bat swing from his fingertips. The breeze picked up strands of his hair and blew them back. It could’ve been nice out here if Billy hadn’t been aware that Hawkins was a hellhole. 

“So,” Steve said nonchalantly. “You just learned a lot of new stuff.” 

“Yeah. It feels like I’m in some crappy horror movie.” Billy paused, glancing over at Steve. “Are we… okay?” He stopped and Steve came to a halt, too. “I mean, we’re not, like, enemies or anything, right?” 

“To be fair, I never considered us enemies.” 

“Me neither. It’s just, now that I know everything that’s fucked up with this town, I don’t want one of the few other people who knows about it too to hate me.” 

Steve looked like he was considering Billy’s words. “I don’t hate you. We got off on the wrong foot, sure. But I think some of that probably had to do with your dad.” He said it cautiously, as if afraid Billy would react badly to it. 

Billy didn’t immediately answer. He stared over Steve’s shoulder at Max and Lucas as they picked their way into the trees. “I think I’m glad he’s gone.” 

Steve made a small noise. “You seem better now that he’s not around.” 

Billy met Steve’s eye. Was he better? He wasn’t sure. But Billy still felt he’d never truly forgive himself for doing what he’d done, even if he’d wanted to do it for a while. It was still nice not to have him around, though. 

“Uh, Steve?” Lucas called out from somewhere within the line of trees. “I think we found something.” 

Steve blew out a breath. “Okay, here we go.” He started towards the trees, and Billy jogged a bit to catch up to him. “Lucas!” he called out. 

“Over here!” Lucas responded. 

Steve corrected his course as he navigated through the trees. Billy followed closely behind him, not wanting to know what Lucas and Max had found, but also not wanting to be alone out here. They walked farther into the woods for a few moments until they stumbled out into a clearing. Steve stopped so suddenly that Billy ran into his back. 

Billy gripped Steve’s shoulder and leaned to the side to see past him. Max and Lucas were standing a little ways ahead of them, staring at the opposite side of the clearing. Everything—trees, grass, even a small squirrel—in the clearing had died and rotted until it had turned black. 

The wind picked up and Billy almost retched at the rancid smell. It reminded him off the smell of the birds in Hopper’s cabin. “What the hell is this?” he asked, straining to make out how far back into the trees the rot went. 

“It’s part of the Upside Down.” Steve turned to Billy, and Billy let go of his shoulder. “If we’re going to find any clues to what’s happening, it’s over there.” He gestured at the blackened landscape. 

“Why is it back?” Max asked Steve. “I thought Jane closed the portal.” 

Steve shook his head. “I have no idea. All we can do is search the area and hope we figure out what’s going on.” 

Billy gripped his axe harder. “This seems like a terrible idea.” 

“It is,” Steve agreed. Then he turned away and started towards the rotted region. 

Billy glanced over at Max and Lucas. Lucas waved him forward. Billy tried not to grimace as he followed Steve. The smell was even worse up close, but Billy tried to take a few quick breaths to get past the worst of it. He almost flailed when he stepped onto the rotted ground and his foot sunk down farther than he expected it to. 

Billy was seriously starting to rethink his entire life as they came upon what looked like a sinkhole in the ground. Steve slowly edged towards it. 

“Steve,” Billy whisper-shouted, grabbing the back of Steve’s jacket. 

Steve glanced over at him. “What?” 

“I don’t fucking like this.” 

“Yeah, me fucking either. But--” Steve cut himself off as he glanced down into the hole. 

“What?” Max said. “What is it?” 

Steve shook his head. “It’s just an empty hole. Like the one we found when we were looking for… for Billy’s dad.” 

Billy glanced away, feeling sick to his stomach. When he did, he caught sight of something moving among the trees. He held his axe up and slowly approached the trees. 

“What is he doing?” Lucas said from behind Billy. “Where is he going?” 

Billy ignored him and squinted to try and make out any more movement. When he didn’t see anything, he relaxed a little. Maybe it had been an animal. Or maybe he was just seeing things. 

“Billy!” Max suddenly shouted. 

Billy spun around to face her, but was knocked off his feet when something slammed into him. He fell onto his back, his breath knocked out of him and the axe almost flying out of his hand. He stared up at a decaying human face. For a second, he thought it was his dad, then he realized he didn’t know the face above him. 

Billy barely had time to react before the zombie holding him down lunged for his throat. He slammed the axe handle into its face, knocking it to the side. Then something else moved in his vision, connecting with the thing’s head. The zombie stumbled up onto its feet and backed away from Billy. 

That was when Billy saw Steve dragging the thing back by the tattered shirt it was wearing, part of his bat covered with congealed blood. Billy shot to his feet as quickly as he could and took a swing at the zombie’s head. It connected with a thud. Billy placed a foot on the zombie and kicked it down while he pulled the axe out of its head. The thing collapsed to the ground and didn’t move. 

Billy stared at Steve from across the dead body, and Steve held his gaze with wide, dark eyes. Billy opened his mouth but Lucas screamed before he could say anything. He turned to see Lucas struggling to get his arm out of the grip of another zombie. Max was pulling on his other arm in an attempt to free him. 

Billy rushed over to him. He slid to an ungraceful stop before the zombie, gripped his axe tightly, and swung up at the thing’s chin. The axe embedded itself in the zombie’s face. It stayed standing for a few moments, and Billy wondered if the thing would try to attack him. Then the zombie started to fall back. 

Billy stumbled forward with it as it hit the ground. He jerked on the axe until it came free with a terrible sound. He turned to Lucas, who was sprawled on the ground with Max sitting beside him. 

“That…” Lucas said, still looking terrified. “That was badass.” 

Steve was spinning in a slow circle behind Lucas and Max, probably trying to make sure that no more zombies were going to come after them. Billy let out a sigh and reached a hand out to Lucas. Lucas hesitated for a second, then took Billy’s hand and let himself be pulled up onto his feet. 

“Thanks, man,” Lucas said in a quiet voice. 

“Yeah, of course,” Billy replied. He looked to Steve, who was standing still now. He suddenly felt like he was going to be sick. 

Steve followed Billy’s slight movement as he leaned over a little bit. He seemed to understand what was happening and pushed Billy out of the clearing quickly. Billy gripped the nearest living tree and threw up next to it. 

Steve had his hand on the back of Billy’s neck, and Billy could feel the slight tremor running through it. “Fuck. Are you okay?” 

“Not really, no,” Billy choked out. He slowly straightened up, but Steve kept his hand on Billy’s neck. “We should keep searching this place shouldn’t we?” He said it with all the reluctance he had in him. 

Steve grimaced. “Probably. Let’s all stick close together, though. No wandering off from each other.” He looked to the side, and Billy followed his gaze to see Max and Lucas standing nearby, holding each other. 

They all stood there for another minute, recollecting themselves. Billy felt the shaking in Steve’s hand slowly fade. He felt the cold air hit his skin as Steve let his hand drop. It was like a shock to the system, letting him come back down to reality. The kids fell in line behind Steve as they set off further into the blackened area. Billy took up position in the back, glancing over his shoulders more often than he would’ve liked to admit as they walked along. 


	8. Chapter 8

Steve drove their little group back to the Byers’ house an hour later. They hadn’t found any other zombies while trekking through the woods, even when they’d reached the edge of the rotted area, though they had found a couple more holes in the ground. Billy could see that Steve was relieved that they hadn’t run into anymore danger, although it was unsettling that there may be more dead bodies walking around the town.

Hopper’s car was already at the house, and his whole group was gathered by the front door. Billy guessed they’d run into their own trouble going by the frustrated look on Hopper’s face. Lucas and Max slipped out of the car after Billy and ran up to the other group to let them know what had happened. 

After the kids were done recounting their tale, Hopper said, “Well, I guess it’s good you at least found something. The bad thing is there may be other bodies out there. Which is a whole other problem.” He rubbed at his temples. “The place we wanted to search was blocked off by military. We would’ve gotten shot before we ever got close to the lab.” 

“You think this whole thing is coming from the lab?” Steve asked. “That’s where the original portal to the Upside Down was,” he clarified for Billy. 

“Considering how locked down the place is, I’d place my bet on it,” Hopper replied. “But we’d need a really good plan to get in. That, or a really idiotic one.” 

“We didn’t see any portals at the quarry, but there might be one there that we missed. Maybe it’s worth it to go back and look. And maybe Nancy and Jonathan might find something.” 

Hopper nodded. “Let’s wait for them to get back, then we’ll figure out what to do next.” He went inside, and everyone else followed him in. 

Billy started to go in, too, but Steve caught him by the elbow. “Hey, do you want to go something to eat?” 

Mike popped his head out from the doorway. “Are you going to get everyone food?” 

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Steve replied. 

Mike repeated his words in a mocking way. “Get me a burger. And fries.” 

“Whatever. I’ll get you something if I want to, not because you told me to.” 

Mike rolled his eyes but disappeared from the doorway. Billy turned back to Steve, who was looking at him expectantly. 

“I know there’s probably still zombies out there doing their thing, but I’d give anything to have a milkshake right now,” Steve said. 

“Only if we get to take my car,” Billy finally responded. 

Steve glanced over at Billy’s beat up car with its broken windshield. Then he looked back at Billy with a concerned, almost pained, look on his face. Billy grinned at him. 

“Oh, that was a joke,” Steve said with fake surprise. “I’m so glad you can joke right now. That’s great. It’s not like we were in a life-or-death situation like thirty minutes ago.” He turned around and started walking for his car. 

Billy followed him, smiling. He didn’t know he’d still had it in him to do that. “I think I deserve to joke around a bit after all the shit I’ve been through lately.” 

Steve rested his arms on the roof of his car and gave Billy a small smile. “And I deserve to let you know when your joke is bad.” 

“Ha. Just get in the car, Harrington.” 

*** 

Billy and Steve sat quietly in the car as they ate. They were parked outside a diner, being bathed in the neon glow of the sign on top of the building. Billy actually felt calm for the first time in a long time. Maybe he was just exhausted now that all the adrenaline had fled his body. 

Steve let out a small sigh. “God, I miss when things were normal.” 

Billy snorted. “You and me both.” He absentmindedly picked at the wrapper around his burger. “But… this, right now, isn’t too bad, is it?” He gestured vaguely between them. 

Steve hummed, looking thoughtful. “No, it’s not too bad. Not as long as we don’t get attacked by a zombie anytime soon.” He fell silent for a moment, then said, “Can I, uh, ask you something kind of personal?” 

Billy tensed up. His first instinct was to say no, but this was Steve asking. Billy wanted to think that Steve was trustworthy, and that maybe one day he could trust Billy back. That could start with this moment here. 

“Sure.” 

Steve opened his mouth, and looked like he was struggling for the right words to say. “How did you know you liked guys? Like, was there some sort of light bulb moment or something that you had?” 

Billy stared out the windshield, thinking. “I don’t know. I think I always kind of knew that I liked guys. I just didn’t realize how… wrong, I guess, it was until my mom caught me kissing another boy while we were supposed to be studying in my room.” He grimaced. “She freaked out so bad. I thought she might try to drown me in holy water.” 

Steve raised his eyebrows at him in a mix of horror and disbelief. 

“My mom was a devout Catholic,” Billy said. “It was the worst thing ten-year-old me could imagine her doing.” 

“But she didn’t do that. Did she?” 

Billy let out a bitter laugh. “She probably thought about it. She actually took me to church with her as much as she could and berated me about my gayness all the time. Plus my dad was… a shithead about it, too. They basically forced me back into the closet. I was so fucking miserable.” 

“I’m sorry,” Steve said quietly. 

“Don’t be. You had nothing to do with it.” Billy paused. “You probably expected a nicer answer.” 

“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting you to answer at all. But I’m glad you did.” Steve smiled at him gently before turning back to his milkshake. 

Billy stared at him. Neon colors highlighted his messy hair and followed the slope of his nose. Billy wanted to reach out and run his fingers through Steve’s hair, across his skin. To be able to do it just once would be enough. 

“Why did you ask about it?” Billy asked, trying to distract himself from those thoughts. 

Steve got flustered, stumbling over his words for a second. “I was just curious, is all.” 

Billy grinned at him. “Steve Harrington, are you wondering if you like boys?” 

“No. I like girls. Completely.” 

Billy sank back into his seat and threw his feet up on the dashboard. “Whatever you say. It’s not like I’d judge you anyway.” 

Steve crumpled up his trash and threw it into Billy’s lap before starting the car without a word. Billy smiled languidly. They sat in comfortable silence for a while as Steve drove back to the Byers’ house. 

“I forgive you,” Steve said suddenly. 

Billy tore his attention away from the road in front of them. “What?” 

“I forgive you. For beating me up. That sounds weird to say.” 

Billy sat up a little straighter. “I—Thank you.” 

Steve glanced over at him. “We might become zombies at some point, so might as well make amends now, right?” 

“Right,” Billy agreed quietly. He looked down at the space between them, debating whether or not he should take a risk. He’d just gotten on good ground with Steve, but like Steve had said, they were one step closer to dying now that everything was going to shit. 

Billy took his feet off the dash. “Can I tell you something, even though it might make you hate me?” 

Steve furrowed his brow. “Yeah, sure.” 

“I was the one who killed my dad. The first time around, I mean.” 

Steve was quiet for a long moment, then he breathed out a little, “Oh.” 

“I didn’t--” Billy started to say, but his sentence was cut short when something rushed out in front of the car. 

Billy and Steve screamed as the car hit whatever it was in the road. The thing came crashing through the windshield, and then the car was careening off the road. Billy blacked out as soon as it collided with a tree. 

When Billy regained consciousness, he could barely focus. It felt like he wasn’t even in his own body. He lifted his head from where it had been resting on the dashboard. Steve was slumped over the steering wheel, which was belting out a loud whine. Billy tried to call out Steve’s name but all that came out was a rasp whisper. 

Billy slowly lifted himself up and fumbled around for the door handle. He finally found it, though the door wouldn’t open no matter how much he pulled at the door handle. Billy braced himself and threw his body against the door. It flew open and Billy fell out of the car. In the moonlight, he could see that his left arm was wet with blood. 

It took Billy a moment to muster up the strength to stand up, but when he did he just fell back onto his knees. A sharp pain ran through his ankle. Billy spit out a curse and stared to crawl to the back of the car. When he finally got there, he saw a trail of blood leading away from the car. Further off, a dark figure was lying motionless in the road. 

Billy ignored it in favor of getting to Steve’s door. Thankfully, the door opened without Billy having to force it open. Steve was still slouched over the steering wheel. Billy pulled himself up, using the car as leverage as he kept his weight off his bad leg. 

Steve stirred a little and mumbled something unintelligible when Billy pulled at his arm in an attempt to get him out of the car. Billy felt relief flood his system now that he knew Steve was still alive. He took better hold of Steve’s arm and managed to slide Steve out of his seat and onto the pavement. Billy sat down heavily next to Steve, who was starting to come around. Billy could only stare at the dark patches on his face that were surely blood. 

“Billy?” Steve whispered, reaching out blindly. 

Billy grabbed his hand. “I’m here.” He had no idea what the fuck to do. Neither of them were in any shape to go find help, but if they didn’t they’d probably die here. 

“What happened?” Steve asked, not even trying to sit up. 

“Don’t know. We hit something.” 

Billy’s vision suddenly started to go fuzzy. Panic filled him. No, he couldn’t pass out now. It wasn’t… It wasn’t fair. He’d been through too much shit to die here and now. 

Apparently, his body didn’t agree with him, though, because soon static was all he could see. Then everything went black. 


	9. Chapter 9

Billy slowly came to. He blinked against bright lights, but even when he’d adjusted to them, everything was still blurry. He could make out a door and a chair and some kind of beeping machine in the room. Someone touched his shoulder—he’d been so absorbed trying to figure out where he was that he’d completely missed that another person was there with him-- and he nearly jumped out of his own skin.

“It’s nice to see you awake,” a woman in white said. “How are you feeling?” 

Billy tried to say something but only a croak came out. He had a glass shoved into his hand. He hesitated a moment before taking a drink. 

“Where am I?” Billy managed after he’d downed most of the water in the glass. 

“You’re in the hospital. You got into a car crash.” There was a pause as the woman went over to the machine to probably check Billy’s vitals. Then she turned back to him. “I’ll let the doctor know you’re awake.” 

Billy sunk back into the bed and pulled at his flimsy hospital clothing as he watched the nurse leave the room. He caught a glimpse of a stark white hallway outside his room before the door closed. Then he propped himself up on his elbows as he remembered Steve. 

Billy struggled to sit up, but he eventually managed it. On a small table next to his bed, he thought he saw his glasses. He reached for them and blew out a sigh of relief as he slipped them on. One of the lenses was cracked, but at least things were clearer now. 

The door opened and a man in a lab coat walked in. He held a clipboard, but Billy couldn’t see what was attached to it. 

“Hello, Mr. Hargrove,” the man said. “I’m your doctor. I just wanted to check in on you now that you’re awake. Your ankle has a pretty nasty sprain, and we had to sew up a wound on your arm and near your ribs. How are you feeling?” 

“Fine,” Billy replied shortly. He couldn’t feel any pain at all, really. 

“We’ve got you on painkillers for the moment,” the doctor said as if reading his mind. “They’ll start wearing off soon.” 

“What about Steve? He was in the crash with me.” 

The doctor paused. “He’s fine.” 

“I want to see him.” 

“I’m afraid that’s not possible. You both need to rest for a while longer.” 

Billy sat up a little straighter. “I want to call someone to let him know where I am.” 

The doctor gave him a small smile. “Why don’t you give me his number and I’ll call him for you?” 

Billy glanced at the doctor’s clipboard. “I’ll write it down for you.” 

The doctor’s smile stayed frozen on his face as he ripped a piece of paper off. He approached Billy and gave it to him, along with a pen from his coat pocket. Billy quickly scribbled Joyce’s number down, hoping Hopper was still with her. He gave everything back to the doctor, who glanced at the number, then stuffed the paper into his pocket. 

“When can I see Steve?” Billy asked before the doctor could leave. 

“Not today,” he replied. “Get some rest and I’ll have a nurse check in on you in a little bit.” He opened the door and slipped out. 

Billy craned his head and managed to get a glimpse out of the door of the hallway and a numbered door on the opposite side of the hall. Then the door closed with a click. Billy waited a few moments, then stood up. He ended up sitting back down when he put weight on his bad ankle, sending a sharp pang of pain through his leg. 

A glance around the room let Billy know that no one had left him crutches. Probably because they wanted him to stay in bed. There was a door opposite the one leading out into the hallway, though. Maybe something was behind it. 

Billy stood up again, but didn’t put any weight on his bad ankle. He ungracefully hopped across the room, using the bed and then the wall as support. He made it to the door and opened it to reveal a small bathroom. He caught a look at his face in a mirror and grimaced. He hadn’t got through the wreck without any damage to it. He wondered how long it’d be before he’d stop being injured. 

Billy lightly punched the wall, then started hopping over to the other door. He tried the door handle, but it didn’t budge. He stared at it for a second, then tried pushing down on it harder. Nothing. 

It took Billy a moment to realize that he was locked in. He felt panic begin to flare up in his stomach. He banged on the door a few times. He waited for someone to open it, but no one did. This felt… wrong. But maybe the doctor had locked him in to keep him from going out and looking for Steve so that both of them would rest. That sounded reasonable. 

The thought didn’t help to settle his discomfort at the thought of being stuck in this room, though. Billy went back to the bed and sat down. He took his glasses off, throwing them back onto the table by his bed. He’d just wait for the nurse to come by. He might be able to convince her to let him out of the room, or she might leave the door unlocked. 

Billy laid down slowly. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but found he couldn’t. So he stared up at the ceiling and waited as he replayed the crash in his mind. The doctor hadn’t told him anything about Steve except that he was fine. Billy had no idea what state he was in. He remembered the blood he’d seen on Steve’s face, and he wanted to curl up on his side at the thought of Steve being anything less than okay. 

This whole thing felt like his fault. If he hadn’t distracted Steve by confessing to his dad’s murder, maybe Steve could’ve reacted better and they wouldn’t have crashed. 

Billy pressed his hands down onto his stomach, trying to relieve the sinking feeling he felt there. He needed to see Steve, to know that he was okay. 

Eventually, Billy’s eyes drifted closed, exhaustion overtaking him. When he finally fell asleep, it was a dreamless affair. It wasn’t until the door to his room opened that he woke up. He had no idea how long he’d been out. 

Billy blinked a few times and reached for his glasses. He slipped them on as the same nurse from before slipped into his room. 

“Hello, again,” she said. “How are you feeling?” 

“I’m okay.” Billy sat up, his arm and side throbbing. The painkillers weren’t helping out much anymore. “Did the doctor call the number I gave him?” 

“What number?” the nurse asked absentmindedly as she slipped a blood pressure cuff onto Billy’s arm. 

“I gave him a number. I want my—I want my dad to know where I am.” Billy didn’t think a small lie like that would be a big deal. 

The nurse gave him a stiff smile. “Your dad is dead, isn’t he?” 

Billy froze. “How do you know that?” 

She faltered a bit. “It was in the newspaper.” 

Billy remembered seeing the whole affair mentioned in a front page headline, but hadn’t bothered to read it. However, it hadn’t taken too long for it to become old news. He wondered how quickly it had taken this woman to connect the dots between him and his dad. 

The nurse took the cuff off of his arm. “I’ll ask the doctor if he called, but he’s a pretty busy man. It might be a while before he calls.” 

“Then can I make the call?” 

“You--” 

“Need to rest? I’ll be able to rest better knowing that other people know where I am.” 

“Why don’t you give me the number and I’ll make the call?” 

Billy almost bared his teeth at her. “You know what? Never mind. Can I at least get some crutches so I don’t have to hop around?” 

The nurse regarded him for a second, her gaze coming close to cold. “I’ll see what I can do.” 

Billy watched her leave the room. Once again, the door closed with a click. He got up and made his way over to the door. He tried to open it. No good. It was locked. 

Billy wanted to shout in frustration. He didn’t like this. Something was wrong here. Why would they want to lock him in? If it was just to make him rest, this was a shitty way of going about it. 

Billy threw his back against the wall, then slid down to the floor. He’d wait here until the nurse or doctor came back and force his way out of this room if he had to. 


	10. Chapter 10

Billy didn’t know how long he sat there on the floor, but by the time he heard someone unlocking the door his butt had gone numb. He stood up as quickly as he could, ignoring the pain in his arm and side. He struggled to stay upright as his legs started to tingle when blood flowed back into them.

The doctor from before opened the door, then jumped back a little when he realized how close Billy was to him. “Mr. Hargrove,” he said, smoothing his hair back. “Why am I not surprised that you’re not in bed?” He had a pair of crutches in one hand that he held out for Billy. 

“Why are you keeping me locked in here?” Billy straightened up and grabbed the crutches, relieved that he could stand up without a wall for support. He tried to peer over the doctor’s shoulder. “I want out.” 

The doctor moved over to block Billy’s view. “Because of behavior like this. I can’t trust you not to go wandering about if I leave the door unlocked. I brought you those crutches as a sign of good will, but maybe I should have thought twice about that.” 

Billy almost sneered at the doctor as he reached into one of his coat pockets. “You thinking of taking them back?” 

“I’m considering it.” The doctor smiled cruelly at him. “What would your late father think of you acting up like this?” 

Billy froze. He stared at the doctor, who met his gaze coolly. 

“What did you just say?” Billy said. 

“You heard me,” the doctor replied. 

Billy felt his chest burning with anger and even shame. What would his dad think of him now? Did it even matter? He realized that it really didn’t. Not anymore. Right now, he only cared about himself, Steve, and getting the two of them out of this shitty hospital. He didn’t want to stay here another minute, even if it meant doing something stupid. 

Billy shifted his weight so he could stay standing while he took one his crutches out from under his armpit. Then he quickly gripped it in both hands and swung it up at the doctor. It hit the man’s chin, and he stumbled back a few steps, clutching his face. There was no turning back now. 

The doorway was wide open. Billy started to hobble past the doctor, but the man recovered fast, reaching for Billy and pushing him back into the room. Billy let out a curse as he stepped on his bad ankle and collapsed to the ground. The doctor loomed over him, something clutched in his hand. A syringe with a nasty-looking needle at the end of it. 

Billy scooched back, but the doctor was already crouching down and bringing the syringe with him. Billy refused to get tranquilized again after what Max had done to him. He grabbed the doctor’s wrist as he tried to stab Billy. 

The doctor pushed against Billy’s grip, but he refused to let go. Billy swung his arm to the side, swinging the doctor’s arm, too. Then he put his whole body into it, causing him and the doctor to tumble over. Billy frantically lifted the doctor’s arm up and brought it down onto the floor as hard as he could over and over again as the doctor pulled at Billy’s hair, trying to get Billy to let go. 

Finally, the doctor lost his grip on the syringe and it scattered across the floor until it slid to a stop under the bed. The doctor let go of Billy and started to crawl towards the bed. Billy lunged forward and grabbed the doctor around the waist, trying to keep him from getting there. 

The doctor swung his arm back, and his elbow connected with Billy’s jaw. Pain blossomed in Billy’s face but he ignored it in favor of grabbing the arm swung at him and biting it hard. The doctor screamed as Billy’s teeth sunk into the sensitive flesh of his underarm. He kept hold like a rabid dog while the doctor tried to throw him off. Billy pushed the doctor’s face to the ground and pulled away from his arm, then climbed over the doctor to get to the bed. 

Billy saw the syringe under the bed and grabbed it. He turned back to the doctor, who was getting up and staggering towards the door. Billy scrambled up, ignoring the pain in his ankle as he propelled himself forward. He tackled the doctor back to the ground and jabbed the needle into the man’s neck, pushing the syringe’s plunger down until whatever liquid was in it had drained. 

Billy held the doctor down as he continued to struggle, letting out helpless shouts. Billy was sure someone would come running into the room any second, but no one did. Eventually, the doctor stopped struggling. He seemed to have passed out, but Billy waited a minute longer before moving to make sure the man was really unconscious. 

Billy crawled across the floor to collect his crutches. He stood up, feeling his entire body aching. He was sure that he’d reopened at least one of his wounds. He carefully hopped over the doctor and into the hallway. He looked up and down it, but it was empty. He turned around long enough to close the door to his room and lock it before wandering around. 

The doors here were numbered, but there was no indication of who was inside the rooms. Billy unlocked the first one he came to and peeked inside. It was dark. He flipped the light switch just inside the doorway. The lights flickered to life, revealing an empty room. 

Billy turned the lights back off and closed the door. There were carbon copies of this door all along the hallway, with no indication of who could be inside. He cursed under his breath. He’d just have to go door-to-door and open each one until he found Steve. 

However, one door stood out from the rest, situated just at the end of the hallway. It caught Billy’s eye. He went over to it. It was made out of metal and had no handle, but there was a tiny window near the top of it. Billy stood up on the tiptoes of one foot, trying to catch a glimpse of what could be inside. He could make out what looked like glass cells inside, but they all looked empty. 

Billy dropped back down and studied the keypad next to the door. It looked like someone could swipe their ID card on it. He glanced along the hallway again to make sure no one had secretly come down it towards him, then went back to his room. He unlocked the door and knelt by the doctor. 

As Billy rolled the man over and snatched the ID that was hanging off his coat, he heard light chattering coming from outside. He hurriedly but quietly closed the door and put his ear up to it as he tried to listen to what was going on on the other side. 

It took a minute for the voices to grow loud enough that Billy was sure they were right outside the door. It sounded like two women talking to each other. He held his breath, sure they’d come to check on him, find the mess of a scene behind him, and really lock him away. 

But the voices grew distant once again, then disappeared altogether. Billy waited another minute before cracking the door open and glancing outside. No one was there. He let out a sigh and slipped back out into the hallway. 

He went over to the keypad and swiped the doctor’s ID. The keypad made a little noise and a green light popped up on it. There was a hissing noise, then the metal door slid back. Billy hesitated at the threshold, then pushed himself forward into the room. It was another long corridor like the one he’d just come from, but this one was curved. The glass cells followed the curve until they disappeared from Billy’s view. The ones that he could see seemed empty. 

Billy walked forward until he could see around the bend. At the far end of the corridor, he could see something cordoned off behind some clear plastic sheeting. It almost looked like the roots of a tree had made its way up the wall and split it open. 

Billy started towards it, entranced by the red glow it gave off as he tried to figure out what it was. He nearly jumped out of his own skin when something started to wail loudly, followed by a meaty thump. Billy stumbled to the side, away from the noise. When he looked over he saw a woman slamming herself up against the glass of one of the cells. 

No. Not a woman. Not anymore. She was a zombie. 

Billy stared at her, at the way the gray flesh was peeling off her body. He wasn’t sure how to react. It was only when the wailing and screaming was picked up by something else that Billy moved. He’d been so focused on what was at the end of the hall that he hadn’t noticed that some of the cells were occupied. He saw not just humans, but animals, too, beating up against the glass, trying to get at him. And none of them looked like they were alive. 

The noise became so loud that Billy thought his ears might start to bleed. He slapped his hands to his ears, unable to tear his eyes away from the rotting flesh and open wounds of these creatures. He felt like he was in the middle of a nightmare. 

Billy started back towards the door, but a figure slid into view of the doorway and then out. Billy stopped in his tracks. He really hoped he’d seen what he thought he’d seen. 

“Steve?” he called out, though he wasn’t sure anyone could hear him over all this noise. 

But then the person stumbled back into the doorway. Billy felt relief punch him in the gut as Steve stood there, looking sweaty and out of breath. He had a bandage on his forehead and a couple bruises, but other than that he seemed fine. He said something but Billy couldn’t hear it, could only see Steve’s mouth moving. 

“What?” Billy yelled. 

Steve ran over to him, looking around wildly at the creatures in their cells. “We have to get out of here,” he said, mouth almost up against Billy’s ear. “This isn’t a hospital. It’s a lab.” 

Billy was already starting to get that. He followed Steve back towards the hallway as fast as he could. He could only wish they wouldn’t have to run anywhere because then he’d be fucked. 

Steve suddenly skidded to a halt, then started to back up. Three men walked through the doorway. The man in front was scrawnier but taller than the other two, with a shock of white hair on his head. He didn’t seem bothered by the fact that Billy and Steve were here, surrounded by screaming creatures. 

The man in front made a small gesture at one of the men behind him. “Shut them up.” 

For a second, Billy thought the man was talking about him and Steve. But the man who’d been gestured to walked over to a computer set into the wall and started typing. A few seconds later, a hissing sound started up. Billy watched as the glass cells filled with some kind of gas. The noise slowly died off as the creatures started to stumble around and drop. 

“Well,” the man up front said, running a hand over his lapel, “you two are a handful. We’ve got a doctor and a nurse down because of you.” 

“You took out a doctor?” Steve said to Billy after a pause. 

“You took out a nurse?” Billy said back. 

“Boys, please,” the man interjected. “Let’s make this easy. You two will follow these gentlemen behind me back to your rooms and you’ll stay there until you’re fully rested.” 

“Who the fuck are you?” Billy snapped. 

The man leveled a look at Billy. “My name is Dr. Brenner. I run this… facility. So, as I said, please follow these gentlemen.” 

Billy shifted uncomfortably. He knew that name. He knew—Jane. Brenner was the one who’d raised her. No, not raised her; he’d experimented on her. Billy could remember Hopper mentioning him with barely contained bitterness in his voice. 

Billy shook his head. “No. We want out of here.” 

Brenner took a step forward. “That’s not possible.” 

Steve subtly stepped in front of Billy. “You can’t keep us here.” 

“What are you going to do? Make a run for it? Or maybe you want to take that exit.” Brenner pointed down the hallway, where it curved around. 

Steve gave Billy a confused look. Billy slowly walked backwards with him until he could glance over his shoulder at the weird thing at the end of the hallway. Steve inhaled sharply. 

Steve glanced between Brenner and Billy. “We can’t stay here,” he whispered. 

“What the fuck else are we supposed to do?” 

“Go through that portal.” He said it as if it pained him. 

“Portal? What-- ” Billy squinted at the thing at the end of the hallway. He finally made out what was happening with it. He could see movement through the tear in the wall, and that the roots were coming through it. 

Billy glanced over when he heard footsteps approaching them. Brenner’s lackeys were coming their way. He looked around at the cages, where the zombies were lying unconscious. If Brenner was keeping these things here, he didn’t want to know what he had planned for him and Steve. 

“Let’s do it,” Billy stated, and started towards the portal. 

“Grab them,” Brenner commanded from the other end of the hallway. 

Steve had his hand on Billy’s back, urging him forward as much as he could without making Billy topple over. He was still too slow, though, and the men quickly caught up to him and Steve. One of them tackled Billy, dragging him to the floor. 

An elbow landed in the middle of Billy’s back, knocking the breath out of him. He saw the other man lunge at Steve, who quickly side-stepped him and tripped him. Before the man had even hit the ground, Steve was running over to Billy. Billy saw him aim a kick at the man on top of him. 

Billy finally drew in a breath as Steve pulled the man off of him. Billy scrambled to grab his crutches and stand up. He flinched when Steve ran at him and bent down to hitch an arm around the back of his legs. Billy was knocked off balance and it was all he could do to clutch at his crutches as Steve picked him up off the ground like a baby. 

“You can hate me for this later,” Steve said breathlessly as he ran with Billy in his arms down the hallway. 

Billy gripped Steve’s shoulder hard. He could see the men picking themselves up off the floor behind Steve. The men started to run towards them again but Brenner shouted at them to stop. Steve was already pushing past the plastic sheets. Billy felt him hesitate briefly at the same time he heard Brenner calling for back-up. 

“Steve,” Billy said. He didn’t want to find out what other kind of people Brenner had at his disposal. 

Steve met his eye, fear on his face. Then some of the fear left his expression. He nodded a little, then pushed forward, through the portal. 


	11. Chapter 11

Billy thought that stepping through the portal would’ve felt like… like something. But it was like they’d just stepped into another room where the doorway was lined with spider webs, not another dimension. Steve gently set Billy back down, waiting until he’d steadied himself with his crutches before letting go completely.

Billy looked around. It felt as if they’d walked into a version of the building they were in that’d been left to rot and turn to ruin in the dark. The air here smelled stale. Billy watched as a few gray flakes floated through the air, then landed on his shoulder. 

“We have to find a way back out of here,” Steve said. “There are monsters here that’ll try to kill us.” 

“How do we know where to go?” 

Steve gave him a helpless look. “I don’t know. I didn’t think that far ahead.” 

“Well… fuck.” Billy grimaced. “Let’s just start walking.” 

Neither of them knew how to get out of this building. They just picked a general direction and headed that way, traveling close together in silence. Billy felt tension gripping his spine. They might never get out of here if they couldn’t find another portal to go through. That, or they’d have to go back to Brenner. Neither scenario was what Billy wanted. 

They found themselves in a small stairwell. There was a sign on the wall that should’ve indicated what floor they were on, but the writing on it had been scratched out and faded. They started down the stairs slowly. Billy’s side and arm were burning, but he tried to ignore it as best as he could. He wanted to cuss himself out for slowing them down like this. He almost wanted to tell Steve to go on without him, but the selfish part of him wanted Steve to stay right by his side. 

A noise traveled through the stairwell that froze Billy to the spot. It was a low howl, but unlike anything a dog could make. It echoed through the stairwell, making it hard to tell exactly where the sound had come from. 

Steve reached out a hand and Billy immediately took it, grateful for the warmth radiating off Steve. Billy held his breath as they waited for any other sounds. After a minute of silence, Steve let go of his hand and they began to go down the stairs again. When they’d reached the bottom of the next flight, the howling started up again. It definitely sounded closer this time. Billy couldn’t help but wonder if they were walking right towards a monster. 

Steve sent Billy a terrified glance, then kept going down the stairs. Billy followed him. Thankfully, they reached the bottom floor after the next set of stairs. Steve pushed the stairwell door open slowly and peeked out of it. Then he pushed it all the way open, holding it so Billy could go through. 

They’d entered what looked like a lobby, though Billy couldn’t know for sure in this fucked up place. But at the very least, he could see through a set of glass doors to the outside. If it was an exit out of here, he’d gladly take it. Though what monsters could be outside this building, Billy didn’t know and didn’t care to find out. 

Billy started for the exit with Steve in the lead. They’d reached the doors and Steve was opening one when Billy caught sight of movement not too far from them. He grabbed Steve’s shoulder and silently pointed to a small creature only a few feet away. He felt Steve stiffen as they stared at the thing. 

It was a brain. But it was moving on its own, thin legs carrying it across the floor towards them. Billy tried not to recoil at the sight. Steve began to shove Billy out the door and Billy let him. Steve slammed the door shut just as the brain leapt towards them. It split down the middle as it flew through the air, opening up to reveal rows of vicious yellow teeth. It slammed into the glass, causing cracks to form. The thing let out a howl, the same one that they’d heard in the stairwell. 

Billy stumbled back, almost losing his balance. He barely managed to right himself with his crutches. The brain lunged towards the glass again and more cracks appeared. 

“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” Steve said. 

Billy couldn’t agree more with that. He followed Steve to the gate leading out of the lab’s parking lot, trying to ignore the nagging thought that they might never get out of this place if they couldn’t find another portal to go through. 

Steve grabbed the bars of the gate and pulled at them. The gate moved in a little bit, then wouldn’t budge any further. He tried pushing it instead, but again it wouldn’t open. Billy went to the guard’s booth and started pressing buttons. Nothing. He heard Steve let out a loud curse. 

“Do you think you could climb?” Steve asked, looking desperate as he gripped the doorway of the booth. His face had gone paler than normal. 

“I can try.” Billy sounded more confident than he felt. If he couldn’t get over the gate, he was going to tell Steve to go on without him. 

Steve gave the gate one last shake before turning to Billy. “I’ll give you a boost up. Once you’re on the other side, I’ll hand you your crutches and I’ll climb over.” 

“If this doesn’t work--” 

“It’ll work,” Steve said forcefully, his gaze intense. 

Billy shut his mouth, not even trying to argue with him. He let his crutches fall to the ground and grabbed the gate for support. Steve grabbed him by the hips and counted down from three before lifting Billy up. Billy used the extra momentum to jump up on his good leg and grab the gate further up. He dangled there for a second before getting his foot on a bar and slowly inched his way up the gate. 

Billy couldn’t help but feel relieved—and out of breath-- when he reached the top of the gate. As much as he wanted to tell himself that he’d been ready to let Steve leave him behind, he was terrified of being left behind. He swung his legs over the top of the gate and lowered himself down. His good foot touched the ground and he let out a sigh. 

Steve passed Billy his crutches through the bars. As Billy took them he saw something scurrying towards Steve. He felt like he knew exactly what it was. 

“Steve, get your ass over here now,” Billy said as calmly as he could. 

Steve gave him a wide-eyed look. He glanced over his shoulder and must’ve seen the brain creature coming his way because he leapt as far up the gate as he could before starting to climb. Billy watched as the brain practically sprinted the distance between it and the gate. Steve was only halfway up. 

As the brain reached the gates, it made to jump up towards Steve, splitting open again to show its disgusting mouth. Billy jabbed one of his crutches at it, hitting the thing in the side. It flew back a few feet and landed with a squish on the ground. Steve was almost at the top of the gate now. 

The brain was staggering back to its feet and coming back now. Billy tried not to yell at Steve to go faster as he swung a leg over the top of the gate. Billy jumped back a little as Steve dropped down to the ground at the same moment the brain jump at the gate again. 

Steve stumbled away from the gate, then fell to his knees. Billy kept an eye on the weird monster as he held a hand out to Steve. It took him a moment before he reached up and took the offered hand. The brain was pacing back-and-forth beside the gate as if working out what to do. 

Billy hauled Steve up as much as he could. Steve got his feet under him and stood up, then grabbed hold of Billy as if trying to give him a hug. He dropped his forehead onto Billy’s shoulder. 

“Everything’s spinning,” Steve choked out. 

“Okay,” Billy murmured, still staring at the creature as it paced. He didn’t want to stick around and find out if it would figure out how to get to them, but he also didn’t want Steve passing out. “You’re okay. Let’s walk a little and find a place to sit down.” 

Steve straightened up a little, his nose brushing Billy’s cheek. “I’m sorry. I got us into this.” 

Billy shook his head, pulling back from Steve so he could look at him. He almost looked like a ghost with how pale he was. Billy didn’t know if all they’d been doing was just worsening Steve’s head injury. “Let’s not talk about that right now. Do you think you can walk?” 

Steve hesitated, then nodded. Billy nodded back. He made Steve wrap an arm around his shoulder and awkwardly walked them towards the road, using only one crutch for support. When they’d gotten to the other side of the road and into the trees, Billy let go of Steve so he could sit down. Steve put his head between his knees while Billy tried to keep an eye out for any other monsters that might be lurking near them. He was mainly worried that if he stopped for too long, he might not be able to get going again. His whole body was in pain, and he wanted to lay down and scream. 

“We could go to the quarry,” Billy said, thinking out loud and trying to distract himself from his pain. “I know we didn’t find a portal there before, but maybe we just missed it. Why else would it be rotted through like that?” 

Steve lifted his head and rested it on the blackened tree behind him. He looked a little better. Billy tried to relax a bit and sat down next to him, telling himself that he’d be able to get back up. He felt some of his muscles start to unwind, though it wasn’t the most pleasant experience. 

“We’re probably fucked, right?” Billy said. 

Steve let out a small chuckle, but there wasn’t any humor in it. “Probably. Should’ve stayed in the lab and let them experiment on us.” 

“That sounds like paradise,” Billy joked. 

The corner of Steve’s mouth lifted up. Then he turned serious, gazing at Billy. “Tell me we’ll make it out of here in one piece.” 

Billy stared back at him. He tried to put as much conviction in his voice as he could. “We’ll make it out. I’m not dying here, and neither are you.” 

“Thanks,” Steve whispered. “Now help me up.” 

“Sure, get the man with one good ankle to do all the heavy lifting.” Billy stood up in time, glad that he was able to do at least that, and offered Steve his hand anyway, pulling him up to his feet. 

They started to head back to the road so they could follow it to the quarry, and had almost gotten there when Billy heard something like static then muffled voices. He stopped, grabbing Steve’s arm so he would stop, too. Steve must’ve heard the noise as well because he pulled them both behind a nearby tree. 

Billy peeked out from behind the tree, trying to spot where the noise was coming from. It didn’t take much looking since the three people making the noise were all across the road, wearing yellow hazmat suits. 

“Shit,” Steve said under his breath. “Those could be Brenner’s people.” 

“Why does he want us so bad?” Billy whispered. “And what the fuck was he even doing with all those zombies?” 

Steve shook his head. “I wish I knew. Or maybe I wish I didn’t know anything at all. I don’t which would be better.” 

They quieted down as the three hazmat people wandered onto the road, scanning their surroundings. Billy felt Steve grip his hip as the people started walking towards the trees. Billy didn’t think he had it in him to fight if they found him and Steve. 

Fortunately—and unfortunately—it looked like it might not come to that. Billy spotted the stupid brain thing from before following the bright yellow group at a distance. He briefly wondered if the thing even had eyes. Either way, the monster had scurried up behind the group and was crouching down as if ready to pounce. Steve’s fingers dug in deeper to his hip. 

Billy felt like he should shout some warning to the people, but they were probably here to take him and Steve back to the lab. He almost did shout out to them, though, when he saw another brain creature appear out of nowhere. Then another. One for each of the three people. 

“We should get out of here,” Steve whispered into his ear. 

Billy nodded. They backed away from the scene as quietly as possible and headed towards the road, giving the brains a wide berth, hoping they wouldn’t be seen. Billy cringed when he heard someone scream. Other screams followed it, along with the sound of guns being fired. Then as quickly as the noise started, it stopped. 

Billy and Steve looked at each other. Billy was sure his terror was written all over his face, but he was past caring. He wanted to get out of this place as fast as possible. 

They followed the road as quickly as they could. They’d only made it a couple yards when something crashed out of the trees a few feet ahead of them. It was one of the hazmat people. They stumbled out onto the road, their yellow suit now stained with bright red blood. The person turned their head towards them, and Billy knew something wasn’t right. He could see a woman’s face through her shattered faceplate, but her face was completely blank. She stared at them for a moment, then screamed in rage. 

Billy and Steve both screamed as the woman rushed at them, her movements jilted as if she didn’t know how to use her own body. Billy swung one of his crutches at her face, causing her to fall to the side. He stumbled and fell as well, scraping his knees against the asphalt. He saw Steve running towards the trees to where the lady had come from. Billy’s first thought was that Steve was leaving him behind. 

But then he saw Steve skid to a halt and grab something off the ground. The woman was already getting back up and crawling towards Billy. He was about to get up and run, even if it meant having to run on a fucked up ankle. Then a gunshot rang out. The woman’s head whipped back and she collapsed to the ground, unmoving. 

Billy looked over at Steve to see him holding a gun. His hands were shaking so bad Billy was almost surprised he’d been able to make the shot, even this close. Billy got back up, wincing at his skinned knees. 

There was a cracking noise that brought his attention back to the lady on the ground. He felt his stomach twist as he watched her head burst open and one of the brain monsters scramble out of it. It hissed loudly, then ran off into the trees. 

“Billy, we have to get out of here,” Steve said, still holding the gun in front of him. 

“Yeah, I think I feel the same way,” Billy replied. He urged Steve to give him the gun. When he checked it, he saw that there were no more bullets in the chamber. He dropped the gun, then started back down the road with Steve. He couldn’t help but glance around at every little noise he heard. He was sure another one of the hazmat people would come after them, or a brain would leap out of nowhere and kill them. 

Thankfully, nothing else attacked them on their way to the quarry. Billy tried not to get his hopes up as they eventually came across this dimension’s version of the quarry. The water here was pitch black, like staring into an abyss. If anything, it was the opposite of a hopeful place. 

They found the spot where they’d been attacked by zombies in the regular world. The clearing looked exactly the same, and Billy saw that the holes that they’d come across existed here as well. 

“There has to be something around here,” Steve said, sounding less than confident in himself. He set off in one direction, and Billy followed him, trying to scan every nook and cranny he could to find any sign of a portal. 

After a few minutes of walking around with their noses practically to the ground, Steve let out a small noise and pointed to a large tree a few yards away. “I think that may be a portal.” 

They rushed over there as quickly as they could. Steve fell to his knees and started pulling back roots from the tree. Billy saw the same red glow spring to life that he’d seen in the lab. Relief flooded him. They were going to get out of here. 

Steve was just about to pull back the last of the roots blocking them from getting through the portal when Billy heard movement behind him. He glanced over his shoulder, sure he was just imagining things. Except this time he actually saw something. 

The fucking brain was back, moving slowly towards them like a predator about to pounce on its prey. 

Billy tapped Steve with a crutch. “Hurry up, Steve.” 

“I’m going as fast as I can,” Steve replied as he ripped the remaining roots away, oblivious to what was happening behind him. “Come on, let’s go.” 

Billy stood in between Steve and the brain as Steve crawled through the portal. He heard a low growl come from the monster, as if upset that Steve had escaped. Then the thing angled itself towards Billy and rushed at him. 

Billy kicked the thing as hard as he could with his injured foot, trying not to scream out when it connected with the gray mass. It skittered across the ground, coming to a stop a few feet away from him. He took the opportunity to drop to the ground and start crawling through the portal, shoving his crutches through ahead of him. 

Billy felt someone grab his wrist at the same time that he felt a sharp pain in his bad ankle. He yelped as he was dragged through the portal, feeling the pain in his ankle increase. He struggled to dig his feet into the ground and push himself all the way out the other side of the portal. Steve’s face greeted him, along with the comforting light of dawn. 

“Oh, fuck,” Steve cried out, his voice cracking. 

Billy followed his gaze. The brain monster had followed them through the portal. Not only that, but it was also attached to Billy’s ankle, sharp teeth sinking into his flesh. Billy immediately kicked out, trying to get the thing off, but it wasn’t letting go anytime soon. 

Steve grabbed a nearby branch that had some heft to it. “Hold still,” he said as he raised it above his head. 

Billy reluctantly stopped kicking. The second he did, a shot rang out. Billy flinched as the brain exploded. Pieces of the thing hit him in the face and he started to gag. 

“Are you two okay?” a familiar voice asked. 

Billy looked up as Hopper materialized out from between a pair of trees, a shotgun in his hands. Worry had flooded his features. He approached the brain and gave it a good kick. The thing didn’t budge from where it landed. 

Hopper bent down next to Billy’s leg and wiped blood away from his wound. Billy hissed in a pained breath, and Hopper sent him an apologetic look. 

“Think you can walk?” Hopper helped Billy to his feet, and handed over the crutches Steve brought over. 

“Yeah,” Billy managed to say. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. How the hell did you find us?” 

“Lucky guess. Now let’s get you two out of here.” 


	12. Chapter 12

Billy was exhausted and in pain, but he was out of those stupid hospital clothes and he wasn’t bleeding anymore and he was alive. And Steve was alive. Considering everything that’d been happening to him, he was counting that as a win.

Billy glanced over at Steve, who was sitting next to him at Joyce’s kitchen table. Steve looked as tired as Billy felt. He wanted to reach out and lay his hand on the knee that was resting against his leg, but didn’t. Instead, he focused on Hopper. The man was pacing back and forth, an angry look on his face. Billy tried to remind himself that Hopper probably wasn’t mad at him. Probably. 

Joyce entered the kitchen and grabbed Hopper’s arm, stopping him in his tracks. “Let’s worry about this problem later, okay? The boys and Jane are in bed now. We should let these two sleep.” 

“I know,” Hopper said quietly, a weary expression on his face. “I know. It’s just—That stupid lab already took Jane once. Now they want to go and take my other kid to do God knows what to him and Steve? For all we know, they were going to throw them to those zombies they’ve been collecting. Fuck Brenner. I’d burn that place down with a lighter if I could. I don’t even want to think about what would’ve happened to them if I hadn’t been at the quarry at the right time.” 

“But you _were_ there. We’ve got them back thanks to you,” Joyce said, calm as could be. “That’s all that matters right now.” 

Hopper leaned back against the counter, deflating. “Right. Of course.” He sighed and turned his attention to Steve. “I hate to say it, but your car isn’t going to be taking you anywhere for a while. That deer did a number on it.” 

“We hit a deer?” Steve asked. “Was it another zombie one?” 

Hopper gave him a bitter smile. “No. It was just a regular living deer. I can’t help but wonder if Hawkins Lab set the whole thing up.” He glanced at Joyce. “We’ll talk about it more tomorrow. Go get cleaned up and get some sleep. I’ll stay up in case Brenner’s people come looking for you two.” 

Joyce nodded and wandered out of the kitchen. Steve slowly stood up and followed her. Billy stayed sitting, clenching and unclenching his hands. 

“You think of me as your kid?” he asked Hopper. 

Hopper gave him a confused look, then realization dawned on him. “I, uh, I guess I did call you that. It’s…” He rubbed at his eyes. “You’re a good kid and I care about you, okay? Don’t forget that. Or maybe do. I’m not the boss of you.” 

Billy tried not to smile at him. “Thanks.” He stood up, leaning heavily on his crutches. He was ready to fall over and sleep for twelve hours. “I’ll see you in the morning.” 

“Yeah. I’ll be here.” 

Billy nodded at him, then left the room. He went to the bathroom door and knocked on it. He heard Steve softly tell him to come in. Billy clumsily maneuvered his way inside before shutting the door again. Steve was at the sink, wiping water off his face with a towel. 

Billy sat down on the edge of the tub and watched Steve try to wash the dirt out from under his fingernails. Billy felt guilt gnawing at him from the inside. Steve eventually met his eye in the mirror. 

“This is all my fault,” Billy quietly said. “None of us would be here if I hadn’t killed my dad.” 

Steve turned around and gave him a soft look. “You don’t know that. And if I had been in your situation, I can’t say that I wouldn’t have done the same thing.” 

Billy scoffed. “I can’t imagine Steve Harrington being a murderer.” 

Steve shook his head and grabbed the towel he’d been using. He wet it and came to sit down next to Billy. Even though Steve looked worn out and beat up, he still looked good. His hair was even messier than usual, and Billy resisted the urge to reach out and smooth the strands out. 

“You never know what you’re capable of until you’re in the middle of doing it,” Steve said, lifting the towel up to Billy’s face, wiping at it gently. 

“I guess not,” Billy whispered, letting Steve tilt his face to the side, his grip gentle but warm. He looked at Steve out of the corner of his eye, not wanting to lose sight of him now that everything that had happened was starting to catch up to him. 

Steve tilted Billy’s head the other way. After a moment, his other hand wandered to Billy’s chest and pushed on it lightly. “You used to wear a necklace.” 

“I got rid of it.” Billy tried to ignore the way it felt like Steve’s hand was burning a hole through his shirt. He found himself gripping Steve’s knee instead, but didn’t think he could get himself to let go. “Didn’t want it anymore.” 

Steve made a small noise and stopped cleaning up Billy’s face. The hand on Billy’s chest slid up to his neck. Steve’s thumb pressed into the skin there. Billy stared at Steve, not wanting to even breathe in case he scared him away. This close, he could make each freckle on Steve’s face. He wondered just how many there were. 

“You’re staring,” Steve said softly. 

“Can’t help it,” Billy replied before he could think about it. He bit down on his tongue, preparing himself for Steve’s reaction. 

Steve didn’t immediately react, just searched Billy’s face for something that Billy didn’t think he could give him. Billy sat there, enduring Steve’s gaze for as long as he could bear. He was about to do something that he might regret. 

Billy leaned in and pressed his lips to Steve’s, feeling the warm, soft skin on his. He felt Steve stiffen under the contact, but he didn’t push Billy away. Billy let the kiss linger for a couple seconds more, then pulled back. Steve stared at him, lips slightly parted. 

“I…” Steve cleared his throat, brows knitted together. He started to say something else, but a knock on the bathroom door interrupted him. He glanced over his shoulder, then got up to open the door. 

“Are you boys alright in here?” It was Joyce. She stood in the doorway with her arms wrapped around herself as she glanced between Billy and Steve, slight worry on her face. 

“We’re fine, Ms. Byers,” Steve replied. “We were about to come out.” 

“Good. Well, you know where I am if you need anything. I brought out some pillows and blankets and put them on the couch.” 

“Thanks.” Steve glanced at Billy with an unreadable expression. Then he slipped past Joyce, leaving Billy alone in the bathroom. Billy wrung his hands in the towel Steve had left behind, sure he’d just messed everything up with the one person he didn’t want to hate him. 

“Are you alright?” Joyce asked softly. “You look… sad.” 

Billy shook his head, regathering himself. “Yeah, no. I’m fine. Just tired. It’s been a long day.” 

She nodded slowly. “Okay. Try to get some rest. There are painkillers in this cabinet here if you need any.” 

“Thanks. Joyce?” he called out as she started to walk away. 

Joyce reappeared in the doorway. “What is it, sweetheart?” 

Billy opened and closed his mouth. “How do you keep it together so well? You’re so calm all the time. And I’m just terrified. I don’t know what’ll happen next and I don’t know how to stop myself from being scared about that.” 

Joyce sighed. “Can I tell you a secret? I’m terrified, too. I’ve got two boys that mean the world to me, but the world doesn’t care about them. Anything could happen to them at any time. I think you just have to learn to accept that, and then things get a little bit easier. Not much, but a little. It’s hard not knowing what’s around the next corner.” 

Billy stared down at his hands still clutching the towel. He looked up when a shadow fell over him. 

Joyce smiled down at him, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Come on, I’ll help you up and you can get to bed. There’s nothing that a bit of sleep can’t help.” 

Billy tried smiling back at her, but wasn’t successful. He pushed himself up onto his good foot and accepted his crutches from Joyce. She patted him on the back as he left the bathroom, then left him to his own devices as he went to the living room. 

Steve was already laying on one of the couches, his back turned to Billy. Billy sat down on the other couch, staring at Steve’s back as it slowly rose and fell in time with his breathing. He tore his gaze away long enough to glance into the kitchen. Hopper was in there still, writing on a piece of paper with a frustrated look on his face. 

Billy held in a sigh. He placed his glasses down on the coffee table. He pulled a blanket over himself as he laid down, covering his face with it. Maybe if he couldn’t see anything, he wouldn’t think about anything. 

But Steve’s presence troubled him. He wanted to throw back the blanket and shake Steve awake to ask him if they were fine. But he couldn’t. He wouldn’t. Instead, he shut his eyes, replaying today in his head. 

Who was to say that this house was safe? Zombies or the lab workers could barge in at any time and destroy what fragile comfort they still had. Then they’d all be fucked. 

Billy put his hands over his ears as if that would stop the thoughts. He didn’t know how Joyce could accept that anything could happen. It was driving Billy insane. 

Someone started to shake Billy’s shoulder. He threw back the blanket to reveal Steve sitting on the ground next to the couch. He kept a firm grip on Billy, looking distressed. 

“You were shaking, so I-- ” Steve cut himself off. 

Billy propped himself up on an elbow, realizing that Steve was right as his muscles protested at the movement. Something wet dropped onto his hand. He looked down at it, then quickly wiped his face of the tears that had started to fall. 

“Billy,” Steve whispered. He glanced over at Hopper, who was too into what he was doing to notice the two of them. He got up and sat down on the edge of the couch, awkwardly pulling Billy halfway into his lap. He wrapped his arms around Billy, rocking him slightly. “We’re okay. You know that, right?” 

Billy didn’t know if he meant that in the sense that they’d skirted death or that he was fine with Billy kissing him. It didn’t really matter right now, though. Steve was warm and Billy could hear his steady heartbeat from where his head rested on Steve’s chest. 

Steve released Billy when Hopper started to make noise in the kitchen. He went back to his own couch as Hopper came into the living room, carrying his gun with him. He went to the door and tested the locks. He nodded to himself as if satisfied, then went back to the kitchen. 

Billy met Steve’s gaze from the other couch, wondering what Steve was thinking. He wanted to climb in next to Steve and stay in his arms for hours. But this wasn’t the place or the time, no matter how much Billy wished it was. Steve didn’t say anything before laying back down and closing his eyes. Billy stared at him for a moment longer before laying down, too. At the very least, his mind was a little quieter as he tried to fall asleep. 


	13. Chapter 13

Billy barely kept his grip on his spoon when someone knocked on Joyce’s door the next morning. He swallowed his cereal with some difficulty as Hopper stood up, looking tense.

“I want all of the kids to go to the back of the house,” he said. “Don’t come back out until I tell you to.” 

No one made to argue with him. Billy grabbed Jane’s hand as everyone quickly filed out of the kitchen. They all ended up in Will’s bedroom. Will and Jane sat on the bed while Billy, Steve, and Jonathan sat on the ground. Billy heard the front door open along with Hopper’s gruff voice saying something incomprehensible. 

They all sat still, not saying anything. They all seemed as tense as Billy felt as they waited for Hopper to come back. Billy took his glasses off and gently cleaned them on his shirt, trying to keep himself busy. He wondered if he’d be able to get his broken lens fixed. Not that that was the biggest of his worries. He glanced up sharply as a figure moved into the doorway. 

“Will told us what happened on our walkies and-- Holy fuck, you’re really alive.” 

Billy breathed out a sigh of relief as Dustin charged into the room with that outburst, followed by Max, Lucas, Mike, Nancy, and a disgruntled looking Hopper. Joyce arrived a second later, seeming a little flustered. Dustin went over to Steve and pinched his arm. 

“Ow, fuck. What was that for?” Steve asking, rubbing his arm. 

“Just testing that you’re real,” Dustin replied before giving him a hug. 

Billy’s vision briefly filled with red hair as Max bent down to give him his own hug. “Don’t ever disappear like that again, or else,” she quietly said to him. 

Billy patted her back. “Trust me, I don’t plan on it.” 

Max pulled back so she could check on Steve. As she moved away, Billy saw Lucas standing right behind the spot where she’d been. He gave Billy a quick once over. 

“You look terrible,” Lucas said shortly. 

“Thanks. Just what I wanted to hear.” 

Lucas shifted from one foot to the other, then suddenly grinned at him. “Glad you’re okay, man.” 

Billy couldn’t help but let out a little incredulous laugh, not sure if Lucas was being sincere or not. “Yeah, me, too. Hope you weren’t too worried about me.” 

“Nah.” Lucas gave his arm a light punch as he passed by. “Not when I knew you had Steve to protect you.” 

Billy looked over at Steve, who met his gaze. “Yeah,” he said. “He saved my ass.” 

Steve gave him a small smile, his eyes crinkling at the corners. It made his stomach flip, and he couldn’t help but wonder if everything was alright between them. He forced himself to tear his gaze away when Hopper placed a hand on his shoulder. 

“There’s a couple cars across the street that Joyce has never seen before,” Hopper told him. “It may be nothing, but it may also be people from the lab out looking for you and Steve. Or Jane. It’d be best to stay inside for a while, lay low.” 

Billy nodded, stealing a glance at Steve. He didn’t like the idea of being stuck here for who knew how long, but he’d take that over going back to that lab. He wondered if Brenner had sent more people into the Upside Down to look for him and Steve, and if those people had been attacked by the brain things, too. He grimaced as he remembered the creature crawling out of that lady’s head. 

“Can we please talk about what you saw at the lab?” Dustin was saying as he made himself comfortable on Will’s bed. “Will said something about zombies there.” 

“They had them locked up in cages,” Steve said. “Like they were prisoners. Or experiments. With what happened to us in the Upside Down, I think…” He trailed off, then looked at Billy as if mentally trying to ask him something. 

“There were weird brain things,” Billy said, taking over from Steve. “One tried to attack us, and then some others attacked people Brenner had sent in. One of them came after us, and when she died, the monster left her body. Like it had been using her as a vessel.” 

“Intellect devourers,” Mike said ominously. 

Billy shook his head, not understanding. 

“They serve the Mind Flayers,” Will supplied, looking a little haunted. “They take over people’s brains and takes their memories. They basically turn people into mindless puppets, trying to lure other people to a Mind Flayer so it can gain the knowledge it needs to take over the world.” 

Lucas groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s even worse than real zombies.” 

“But none of the zombies we’ve come across have tried to lure us anywhere,” Billy interjected. “They’ve just attacked us.” 

Everyone fell silent. Billy stared down at his hands. He didn’t even know about half the things the kids were talking about. All he knew was that the zombies were out to kill, not to sweet talk them into going to see another monster. 

“What if the Mind Flayer doesn’t need any more knowledge?” Will said, breaking their silence. “At least, not from humans or animals. What if this is all some kind of test?” 

“How so?” Hopper asked as he leaned back against the wall. 

“You mean it’s a test for the Mind Flayer,” Mike spoke up, looking to Will for affirmation. “Like it’s seeing if the zombies could take over the town for it.” 

Will nodded. “It’s smart. Really smart. Maybe it got all the knowledge it needed from me when I was under its control and now it’s looking to take over. All it has to do is send its servants out, then wait to see what happens.” 

“And we created the perfect testing grounds for it,” Hopper added. “We’re all stuck here until the military decides to leave. And if more zombies keep popping up, the government is going to find out and we’ll be under even tighter security. We’d be like lab rats.” 

“This is all just conjecture, though,” Jonathan interjected. “We can’t know for sure if that’s what’s actually happening.” 

Billy glanced around the room, taking in everyone’s discouraged faces. Jonathan had a point. And even if they knew for sure what was happening, they might not be able to stop it. 

“You said that Jane closed the portals to the Upside Down,” Billy said to Hopper. Then he looked at Jane. “Could you do it again?” 

Jane met his eye and nodded. 

“We still have the problem of getting into the lab,” Hopper said. “It was easier last time because there weren’t people or security, just monsters. To get in now, we’d need a real plan.” 

“What if we use the military to our advantage?” Nancy piped up. “They’re looking for zombies, right? So we tip them off that the lab is full of them. They’d raid the lab and then--” 

“Won’t work,” Billy cut in. “They’ll just take the lab over for themselves, and then we’d never get in.” 

Nancy crossed her arms, her jaw set. Hopper sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. 

“Listen,” Hopper said, “it’s early in the morning and I need coffee before I can start to think. Let’s leave this topic for now and come back to it in a couple hours. Sound good?” 

Nods and murmured agreements made their way around the room. It didn’t take long for the kids to form their own little group once Hopper and Joyce had left. Nancy and Jonathan went to Jonathan’s room and shut the door. 

“Hey,” Steve said to Billy quietly. “Can we talk?” 

Billy felt his heartbeat pick up, worried about what Steve might have to say to him. He nodded anyway. Steve glanced at the kids, who were absorbed in a conversation. He stood up and offered Billy a hand. Billy took it and let Steve pull him up before getting his crutches underneath him. 

Steve led the way out of the room, then gestured Billy into the bathroom. Billy went in without a word, watching Steve slip in behind him and shut the door. Billy pointedly didn’t look at the bathtub, where he’d kissed Steve the night before. 

Steve leaned up against the sink, looking pensive. Billy stood there, not saying anything. Steve didn’t look angry, but that might not mean anything. 

“Last night,” Steve finally said, keeping his voice down. “I… I’m not…” He snorted out air through his nose as if frustrated. “I don’t even know how to say what I want to say.” 

“Look, if you’re not into me, just say it,” Billy said. “I won’t be hurt.” That was a lie, but if it made things easier for Steve, he was okay with it. “And I’m sorry if I read things wrong.” 

Steve stared at him for a second. “Don’t apologize. You didn’t read things wrong.” He said the last part almost at a whisper, and Billy had to lean in to hear him. 

“I didn’t?” Billy couldn’t keep the surprise out of his voice. 

Steve quirked a small smile at him. “No, you didn’t. I think I’m just scared. Which is crazy because look at everything that’s happened to us.” 

“What are you scared of?” 

“I’ve never really liked any guys before. I only ever paid attention to girls. And then you come along, and it’s like my brain went out of whack. And I hated it at first.” Steve grimaced. “But now, I don’t know. Now I know you, and you’ve… you’ve kissed me. You like me. You do like me, right?” 

“I like you,” Billy confirmed. “A lot, actually. If it’s any comfort, I’m scared out of my mind, too.” 

“I guess it’s kind of stupid to be worried about liking you when there’s zombies and walking brains right outside.” 

“No,” Billy said softly. He moved so that he was standing in front of Steve. “There’s nothing stupid about it.” 

Steve gazed at him for a long time, searching Billy’s face. “What happens if we somehow manage to get through all of this alive?” 

“Well, first of all, I’m going to throw the most massive party you’ve ever seen. And then--” 

“That’s not what I meant, asshole.” 

“I know.” Billy gave Steve a slight smile. He paused for a second. “I think I’m going to leave town when everything is said and done. You could come with me.” 

Steve started to shake his head, then stopped. “I don’t know. It sounds silly, but I’ve never really thought about leaving Hawkins. My dad’s basically got a job lined up for me right after I graduate.” 

“That doesn’t mean there aren’t other things out there for you. You’d probably love California. Lots of pretty people out there. Though none quite like you.” 

Steve finally gave Billy a real smile. “You’re a real charmer, you know that?” 

Billy grinned back at him, even though he’d meant what he’d said. “I know.” 

Steve hesitated, then stood up straight. He placed a hand on Billy’s cheek, his thumb lightly stroking Billy’s skin. He leaned in and placed a soft kiss to the corner of Billy’s mouth before pulling away. Billy’s skin tingled from where Steve’s lips had been, and it took his entire willpower not to pull Steve back in and kiss him back. Steve stared at him for a moment, his expression open. Billy could tell that he really was scared of what was happening between them, and he wished he knew the right words to say to settle his fears. 

“Things have been really shitty,” Billy said, stating the obvious. “But it’s better when you’re around. We can take things as slow as you need.” 

Steve let his hand drop from Billy’s face to his shoulder. “You don’t strike me as the slow type of person.” 

“I can be, if it means I get to be with you.” 

Steve nodded slowly. “That sounds good. And it’s not like we’re going to get much privacy here, anyway.” 

“You can say that again,” Billy said as he heard the kids start yelling from Will’s bedroom. 

Steve chuckled a bit. “We should probably get back out there before anyone wonders what we’re doing.” 

Billy nodded. He watched Steve leave, already missing his touch, then stood in the bathroom for a little while longer. His chest felt tight, but not in an entirely bad way. He wanted to run out of this house with Steve and keep going until they were out of this shitty town. He was beginning to consider what Hopper had said about burning down the lab. If it brought an end to all that was going on, he’d be more than happy to do it. 

**Author's Note:**

> [Links to other sites I'm on](http://linktr.ee/kpkl10) 
> 
> [Harringrove playlist](https://open.spotify.com/user/k_hend/playlist/2FY7efDZxf1Bd8fSjDJOnT?si=ssXMtdWmS2uHr33AwYDHMQ) that I made, if you feel like checking it out
> 
> Please feel free to chat with me or suggest songs!!


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